Dioscorea hispidaDennst.

intoxicating yam

WFO wfo-0000391093 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Dioscorea hispida, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. a Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-09-05 / obs. 155827539
Dioscorea hispida, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. b Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 127680160
Dioscorea hispida, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. c Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 155827542
Dioscorea hispida, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. d Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 127680169
Dioscorea hispida, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. e Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 155827547
Dioscorea hispida, photographed by S.MORE
fig. f S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 97357518
Dioscorea hispida, photographed by Greg III Espera
fig. g Greg III Espera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 17328274
Dioscorea hispida, photographed by S.MORE
fig. h S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 97357685

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Dioscorea hispida is native: China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan, Tibet, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Queensland China SoutheastHainanTaiwanTibetAssamBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaQueensland Andaman Is.
Native distribution of Dioscorea hispida, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China Southeast CHS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Hainan CHH
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 18 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Dioscorea daemona Roxb.
  • Dioscorea daemona var. reticulata Hook.f.
  • Dioscorea hirsuta Blume
  • Dioscorea hispida var. daemona (Roxb.) Prain & Burkill
  • Dioscorea hispida var. mollissima (Blume) Prain & Burkill
  • Dioscorea hispida var. neoscaphoides Prain & Burkill
  • Dioscorea hispida var. reticulata (Hook.f.) Prain & Burkill
  • Dioscorea hispida var. reticulata (Hook.f.) Sanjappa
  • Dioscorea hispida var. scaphoides Prain & Burkill
  • Dioscorea lunata B.Heyne ex Roth
  • Dioscorea mollissima Blume
  • Dioscorea triphylla var. daemona (Roxb.) Prain & Burkill
  • Dioscorea triphylla var. mollissima (Blume) Prain & Burkill
  • Dioscorea triphylla var. reticulata (Hook.f.) Prain & Burkill
  • Dioscorea virosa Wall.
  • Dioscorea virosa Wall. ex Klotzsch & Garcke
  • Helmia daemona (Roxb.) Kunth
  • Helmia hirsuta (Blume) Kunth

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.