Species
Dioscorea communis
Common Name(s)
black bryony
Family
Dioscoreaceae
Flora Category
Vascular - Exotic
Structural Class
Monocotyledonous Lianes
Habitat
On and just inside the margin of indigenous forest.
Features
Deciduous vine with subterranean tubers. Glabrous. Stems slender and twining to 3-4m. Leaves with slender petioles to 15cm long, thin and ovate with a deeply cordate base. Plant dioecious, flowers about 4mm wide in racemes to 14cm long. Fruit approx. 1cm diameter, shining scarlet with 1-3 seeds.
Similar Taxa
Glabrous vine with dark subterranean tubers, with thin glabrous deeply cordate leaves. Dioecious with small flowers in pendulous racemes, scarlet fruit freely produced.
Flower Colours
Cream,Yellow
Year Naturalised
1970
Origin
Eurasia - Europe, SW Asia, N Africa and Macaronesia
Reason For Introduction
Unknown
Reproduction
Seed and possibly fragmentation.
Dispersal
Probably bird dispersed.
This page last updated on 18 Jan 2010