Water yam
செவ்வள்ளிக் கொடிపెండలంകാച്ചിൽ
Dioscorea alata L.
- light
- Part sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 15 m
- wide
- 51 cm
Dioscoreaceae
Formerly Dioscorea atropurpurea, Dioscorea colocasiifolia, Dioscorea eburina, Dioscorea eburnea, and 9 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Climbing tuberous geophyteKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Wet tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Trop. AsiaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Part shade (3 to 6 h)Read from Plants for a Future, one source
- Height
- 15 mRead from Plants for a Future, one source
- Spread
- 51 cmRead from Plants for a Future, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from Plants for a Future, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -1.1 °C (USDA zone 10a)Read from Plants for a Future, one source
Not known yet: flowers, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (9)
- Chinese
- 田薯, 山药, 参薯
- Spanish
- Ñame
- Korean
- korean
- Marathi
- गोराडू
- Simplified Chinese
- 云饼山药, 参薯, 大薯
- Tamil
- செவ்வள்ளிக் கொடி
- Telugu
- పెండలం
- Bangla
- মাচা আলু, চুপরি আলু, মেটে আলু
- Malayalam
- കാച്ചിൽ
Where this comes from
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-26, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- Plants for a Future, read 2026-10-26, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY 3.0
- 3D model: Dioscorea alata (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.