Dioscorea transversa

Description

Dioscorea transversa, the pencil yam, is a vine of eastern and northern Australia. The leaves are heart-shaped, shiny, with 5-7 prominent veins. The seed pods are rounded, green or pink before drying to a straw brown papery texture. The edible tubers are typically slender and long. There are two forms: an eastern rainforest and wet sclerophyll form which doesn't have bulbils, and a northern form which occurs in open forests and has small bulbils and large inground tubers