• Family : DIOSCOREACEAE
  (Yam Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : BANA ALU FAMILY (बन आलु)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : DIOSCOREACEAE
• Synonym(s) : Helmia bulbifera (L.) Kunth; Dioscorea bulbifera var. vera Prain & Burkill
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Dioscorea bulbifera L.
• Common name : Potato yam, Air potato, Bulb bearing yam
• Vernacular name : Hegga genasu (Kannada); Pannukizhangu (Tamil); Vaarahee (Sanskrit); Godri, Gorkan, Kadu-kand, Karanda (Marathi); Pitakanda (Oria); Bana alu, Goicha alu, Pita alu, Cucur alu (Hindi); Chedupaddu dumpa, Malakakaya pendalamu, Pendlam (Telugu); Alanthal, Kattukachil, Nukappa, Pannikizhangu (Malayalam)
• Habit : Climber
• Comments / notes : Often on hills climbing on thickets along roadsides, on bushes of scrub and deciduous forests.
• Flower, Fruit : July-March
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Anantapur district, Chittoor district, Kadapa district, East Godavari district, Guntur district, Krishna district, Kurnool district, Nellore district, Prakasam district, Srikakulam district, Vishakapatnam district, Vizianagaram district, West Godavari district
  • Telangana : Nalgonda district, Khammam district, Mehboobnagar district
  • Karnataka : Kolar district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : All districs of Maharashtra
  • Odisha : Common in Odisha
  • Tamil Nadu : All the hills
• World Distribution : Old World tropics
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : J.L.Ellis, 1990- Flora of Nallamalais Vol. 2; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1995- Flora of Orissa Vol. 3; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka; B. D. Sharma, S. Karthikeyan & N. P. Singh 1996 - Flora of Maharashtra state - Monocotyledons; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (2). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Pullaiah, 1997. Fl. Andhra Pradesh, vol. 3.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Dioscorea bulbifera. Downloaded on 21 November 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)