Air vines

Known location:

Paradise River

Expanded Information

• Air tubers (potatoes) are not actually of the potato family but are in fact, yams.
• There are cultivars grown as crops that you can eat, but they have a very bitter taste that is removed by boiling.
• Both the underground tubers and aerial bulbils may contain a variety of toxic compounds. One of these compounds is called diosgenin and it is used to make synthetic steroids for the pharmaceutical industry.
• They reproduce as clones. Even the tiniest bulbil can sprout a new plant.
• As the vines grow up, out and around, they twine and twirl in a counter-clockwise pattern.