Monday, November 3, 2008

The Dioscorea bulbifera - காய்வள்ளிக் கொடி

The Dioscorea bulbifera - காய்வள்ளிக் கொடி seen at Avenue 10 Ang Mo Kio, Singapore.

A vigourous twiner, stems barely woody. This is a monocotyledon, the first that I have brought up in my blog, with no regrets as I am sure this is truly an eye-catcher - for its mysterious looking aerial tubers, (bulbils) - commonly called the air-potato.

This is not a friut! It is a tuber that grows at leaf axils up to a size of a regular pumelo. I have not seen its fruits. Perhaps it doesn't fruit!

The bulbils are planted and it grows easily; in some countries it is the "poor man's" food. Elsewhere, it is considered and invasive plant - that it encroaches the space of other plants.


The flowers are tiny, white sometimes pale green. Seen here are the female spikes - up to 20 cm long, the male spikes being shorter about 4 cm.

More a food than a medicine. But then, there is no disease worse than hunger!

4 comments:

  1. Hi Saba, this plant i have it at home, my neighbour had given the seed. It justed started having the alien type of fruit so weird looking. I am waiting to see if the fruit turn colour so i can eat and try. My balcony looks like alien rocks hanging. Haha
    I like the fact its covering up my balcony and that good. Oh i also have AVARAKAI. My mum uses it leaves for legs to cure her sore in the leg and toe mostly for diabetes. She claims is very useful. so i have them also covering my balcony.
    Nita

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  2. Hi Nita,

    The kaaivalli is not a fruit but a tuber, a kizhangu. So I would not expect it to turn colour - you can boil and eat it straight-away.

    The avarakkai, I will deal with it later. Meanwhile, I shall post another to quench your crave for plants.

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  3. I would love to have a tuber of this to plant in my garden in the USA. Would either of you possibly send me one (or more)? I will gladly pay postage, plus extra. It is very hard to find the edible form of this plant in this country.

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  4. How can I get tuber this plant. Is it the same as mothavalli kalangukala.

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