Yellow Yam (Dioscorea cayennensis)

Family: Dioscoreaceae | Edibility: Choice Edible (4/5)

Yellow Yam or Yellow Guinea Yam (Dioscorea cayenensis) is a spiny vine that can be 10 - 12 m long. The leaves are pale green and heart shaped. It is a commercially cultivated for its roots that have a rough outer skin and pale yellow flesh. It is cooked and eaten as vegetable. It can also be dried and milled to produce flour. Leaves are made into tea.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Leaves, Roots/Tubers

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Fall, Spring, Winter

Flavor & Culinary Uses

flavour with a dry, mealy flesh. — Root - cooked in various ways and eaten as a vegetable.; A palatable flavour with a dry, mealy flesh.; The roots are sometimes dried and milled to produce a flour for storing - this flour is then stirred into boiling water and kneaded to form a paste.; The roots have a rough outer skin and a pale yellow flesh.The roots are up to 3kg in weight.

Habitat & North American Range

Not known in a truly wild situation, having arisen in cultivation. (Zone 10)