Thanks to Alok ji who wrote me a mail today asking me to provide some information about D. bellophylla, that is why I landed here. I had missed this thread perhaps because July was month I was busy with the marriage of my son. I wish to take you back to the interesting discussion which took place on plant uploaded by me as D. oppositifolia in the month of May, but turned out to be D. alata (thanks mainly to the efforts of Vijayasankar ji and Yazdy ji):
http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix/browse_thread/thread/cf3a1632c577e78b/abd7226513164319?lnk=gst&q=Dioscorea#abd7226513164319 <http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix/browse_thread/thread/cf3a1632c577e78b/abd7226513164319?lnk=gst&q=Dioscorea#abd7226513164319>We are here discussing about the above plant uploaded by Prashant ji being D. belophylla or D. bulbifera. The taxonomy of genus Dioscorea is largely based on whether leaves are opposite (and coiling clockwise or turning right) or alternate (coiling anticlockwise or turning left). Incidentally these two species belong to two opposite groups, D. belophylla to the former and D. bulbifera to the latter. I think the plant uploaded by Prashant ji has alternate leaves, and the choice between these two species is clear, unless it belongs to some other species. -- Dr. Gurcharan Singh Retired Associate Professor SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089 http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 8:06 PM, Pankaj Kumar <[email protected]>wrote: > Just for info. the air bulbil is often called the AIR POTATO!! may be > because it looks like or tastes like potato. And it can be in more > than one species...Dioscorea are often characterised by their leaves. > Pankaj >
