White Guinea Yam

This species of yam is an important food crop in parts of the Indian subcontinent and particularly in equatorial W. Africa, where the sta...Read Morerchy tuber is cooked and pounded into what resembles firm mashed potato for use as an accompaniment to stewed dishes. Fortunately for the horticurious, the tuber is widely exported in a dormant, but otherwise viable state.

A visit to an international supermarket revealed a mid-sized tuber beginning to show signs of emergence from dormancy. In commerce, the tuber is transectioned into smaller pieces, which are planted. This effectively multiplies the number of tubers that can be harvested at the end of the lengthy growing season. In this case, I planted an entire sprouting tuber intact to preserve its full energy. The result was a fast-growing, powerful but elegant, twining vine. Unlike the dark green, thorny stems of the very closely related yellow guinea yam (D. cayennensis), the stems of D. rotundata tend to be grayish-green and less prickly. The relative ease in which this important crop is cultivated makes for an interesting container plant that needs a long growing season, and must be brought indoors when cooler (e.g.

This plant grows fast and looks nice /Tubers compact spherical or cylindrical light brown on outside white /cream and yellow fleshed/stem...Read Mores are smooth/this var. does produce airial tubers, and can be propagated by planting the smaller tubers to small to sell or eat,or cuting the top off the big ones ,planting that and eating the bottom.I have had some success rooting stem cuttings-should be mulched to protect from extreems,[excess heat, cold ,or moisture loss/prefers rich well drained soil/needs to be kept moist all summer/must be protected from frost/can be brought in and stored, warm and dry for the winter.excelent eating quality./must be cooked to destroy toxin.also grows well in large tubs of mulch,and these can be taken inside for winter.
2/8/04-I just dug up some of the roots, the 1 year roots averaged 3lbs .I dug some of the second year plants and they were about 10 lbs each. -Nov/2005-some roots have exceded 20 pounds.