Name: Dioscoreaceae
Meaning of Name:
Dioscoreaceae, New Latin, from Ancient Greek after Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης (Pedánios Dioskourídēs, ‘Dioscorides’, an Ancient Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist and author) + Latin -āceae (the feminine plural of -āceus, ‘resembling’, a suffix used to form the taxonomic family names of plants, algae, bacteria, and fungi)
Common Name:
The yam family
Botanical Information:
Dioscoreaceae, or the yam family, has four genera and 870 species of tropical and warm temperate vines and shrubs.
One genus in particular Dioscorea is grown for its edible tubers.
Two defining characteristics of Dioscoreaceae members are their heart-shaped leaves and thick tuber-like underground stems.
The photo chosen to illustrate this family shows the leaf shape of the Chinese mountain yam or Japanese nagaimo (Dioscorea polystachya).
Image copyright © Optimate Group Pty Ltd
