Chinese Yam     Information
INVASIVE
Scientific Name:Dioscorea polystachya
Common Name Synonyms: Cinnamon Vine


NOTES: Climbing vine native to China and East Asia. Winged seeds, but chief means of reproduction are aerial, potato-like tubers (bulbils). Vines twine from left to right (clockwise direction). Herbaceous (non-woody) monocot. Dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants).

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Chinese Yam
Genus species: Dioscorea polystachya
Common Names: Chinese Yam
Cinnamon Vine
Family Name: Dioscoreaceae  
Perennial, twining herbs from a thick rhizome; leaves simple, cordate to hastate with parallel veins converging at apex, on long petioles; flowers unisexual (plants dioecious), regular, in axillary spikes or panicles; fruit a 3-winged capsule; family includes both edible and poisonous species.
Seed Type: Angiosperm
Origin:  
Native: native to North America.
Non-native: not native to North America.
Introduced Native: native to North
America, but not Rowe Woods.
* Definitions based on the USDA
terminology
Nonnative
Category:Vine
CNC Habitat: Krippendorf Arboretum
Identified by:J.D. Mancini

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