Dioscorea nummularia Lam.

Tubers descending deep into the soil, increasing in diameter downwards slowly by a long undefined stalk, to 1 m long and 6 cm in diam.; flesh white, esculent. Plant glabrous. Stem armed, sometimes abundantly at the base, rather wiry, with very obscure ridges. Bulbils none seen. Leaves opposed on the larger stems and alternate elsewhere, but more abundantly opposed than alternate, firmly herbaceous, from exactly cordate to broadly elliptic, with a rounded base, apex rather abruptly acuminate, to 11 by 9 cm, 5-7-nerved; petiole to 7 cm. Male flowering axes 1-4 together, aggregated on downwardly directed leafless branches to 4 cm long, with about 50 flowers spaced their own diameter apart, angled. Buds almost globose above a flattened base, to 1¼ mm long. Female flowering axes 1-2 together, to 15 cm long; axis angled. Capsules with the apex retuse, the base obtuse; wings 20 by 22 mm; stipe to 5 mm.

& Vern. The esculent tuber of this most common species of Dioscorea in E. Malaysia lies too deep, yields too little and that unpleasant in carrying saponin to give the plant any prominence as a source of food. The tough stems serve for a handy bit of cordage when needed in the forest, whence the word tali or cord in its name (see under Enantiophyllum above). Some additional recorded names are uwi in tuwa in N. Celebes, ubing basol in Tagalog (Luzon) which recalls RUMPHIUS'S ubi bisol, banan in Bagobe (Mindanao), tatopo in Halmaheira, singgo in the Kem language of western New Guinea and boku of Port Moresby (New Guinea). It shares pakit in Tagalog with its allies.

The tuber is cooked and eaten.

It can be grown from pieces of the tuber. It can also be grown from aerial tubers. Plants are often planted near trees so that the vine can climb the tree and the tuber is left growing in the same spot for several years with tubers being harvested annually.