• Family : DIOSCOREACEAE
  (Yam Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : BANA ALU FAMILY (बन आलु)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : DIOSCOREACEAE
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Dioscorea pentaphylla L.
• Common name : Fiji yam, Kawan yam
• Vernacular name : Vallaikodi, Chedukannthi (Tamil); Pittalo kanda, Karwa, Karba, Koraba alu, Mundi kando (Oria); Kanta alu (Hindi); Duka-pendalam, Moyakku pendalam, Pendi-mukatiga, Adavi ginusu-tiga (Telugu); Chaval, Henthikkorana, Kattunurunnakizhangu, Kattukizhangu, Kornapidan, Nurunnakizhangu, Noorakizhangu, Nooran, Nuranchaavl, Marakkizhangu, Mulluvalykizhangu, Vellachikizhangu (Malayalam)
• Habit : Climber
• Habitat : Degraded deciduous forests and waste places, also in sacred groves
• Comments / notes : Often on foothills to 1300m, on thickets, less in plains and in scrub jungles. Tubers are edible
• Flower, Fruit : August-December
• Collector(s) Name : Raja K. Swamy & Arun Singh; Arun Singh, Raja K. Swamy & Sankara Rao
• Collection Date : 13-09-2014; 25-10-2014
• Collection Nos : HJCB-E-196; HJCB-E-0228
• Collection Locality : Javadu Hills, Tiruvannamalai district (TN); Way to Bakarapete, Chittoor district (AP)
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Kurnool district, West Godavari district, Srikakulam district
  • Karnataka : All districts of Karnataka
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Ahmednagar district, Amravati district, Aurangabad district, Bhandara district, Mumbai-City district, Mumbai Suburban district, Buldhana district, Chandrapur district, Dhule district, Kolhapur district, Nagpur district, Nashik district, Pune district, Raigad district, Ratnagiri district, Satara district, Sindhudurg district, Thane district
  • Odisha : Bargarh district, Bolangir district
• World Distribution : India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indo-China, China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Papua New Guinea
• 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; H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa; 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; Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 – Flora of Hassan district; Ramaswamy & Razi, 1973 – Flora of Bangalore district; Seetharam et al., 2000 – Flora of Gulbarga district; Rao & Razi, 1981 – A Synoptic Flora of Mysore District; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 – Flora of Coorg district; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 – Flora of Udupi district; Manjunath et al., 2003 – Flora of Davanagere district; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara; Sharma B.D, 1984 - Flora of Karnataka Analysis
• 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 pentaphylla. Downloaded on 14 November 2024.

Botanical Description

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