| Chinese yam | USDA PLANTS Symbol: DIOP U.S. Nativity: Exotic Habit: Vines Forbs/Herbs |
| Dioscorea polystachya Turcz. |
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Taxonomic Rank: Liliopsida: Dioscoreales: Dioscoreaceae |
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| Native Range: Temperate eastern Asia (BAIL); | |
Chinese yam is an herbaceous, twining vine that is often found climbing. It invades open to shady areas in the eastern United States. The leaves resemble greenbrier leaves. They are alternate or opposite, 8 in. (20.3 cm) long, wide, long petiolate, heart to fiddle-shaped with prominent, parallel veins. Leaves are usually more rounded when young or on young plants and fiddle-shaped farther along the stem and on older plants. The rounded stems are thin and wiry. The chief means of reproduction are by aerial potato-like tubers (bulbils) located at the leaf axils and by underground tubers. The vine rarely flowers. Chinese yam can form dense masses of vines that cover and kill native vegetation including trees within a variety of moist disturbed habitats. It was introduced from Asia for ornamental, food, and medicinal purposes and escaped cultivation in the mid 1990s. |
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Identification, Biology, Control and Management Resources
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| Selected Images from Invasive.org | View All Images at Invasive.org |
 Plant(s); Great Smoky Mountains National Park Resource Management Archive, USDI National Park Service, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Plant(s); Troy Evans, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Foliage; July James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Feature(s); Aerial tubers and foliage Jack Ranney, University of Tennessee, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Foliage; Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Feature(s); aerial tubers Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Fruit(s); aerial tubers Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Foliage; Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Infestation; Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Infestation; Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Infestation; Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
 Seed(s); Steve Hurst, USDA NRCS PLANTS Database, Bugwood.org Additional Resolutions & Image Usage |
| EDDMapS Distribution: This map is incomplete and is based only on current site and county level reports made by experts and records obtained from USDA Plants Database. For more information, visit www.eddmaps.org |
 State(s) Where Reported invasive. Based on state level agency and organization lists of invasive plants from WeedUS database. |
