IUCN Red List Category: LC (Draft)
Taxonomy
| Plantae | Tracheophyta | Magnoliophyta | Liliopsida | Dioscoreales | Dioscoreaceae | Dioscorea | Dioscorea pentaphylla |
Taxonomic notes: Dioscorea pentaphylla L. is a secondary wild relative of aerial yam, D. bulbifera L. and bitter yam, D. dumetorum (Kunth) Pax (Vincent et al. 2013).
Geographic Range
Dioscorea pentaphylla is native to the Indian Subcontinent, Indo-China, Malesia, Thursday Island (Australia), China, Taiwan and Japan, and is naturalized elsewhere (USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program 2015).
Use Trade
It is a secondary wild relative of, and potential gene donor to aerial and bitter yam (Vincent et al. 2013). It is also used as a food source in times of famine (USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program 2015).
Red List Rationale
Native subpopulations of Dioscorea pentaphylla are distributed from the Indian Subcontinent, through parts of Indo-China, Malesia and China, to Taiwan, Japan and Thursday Island (Australia), and the species is naturalized elsewhere. Due to its extensive range, the species is assessed as Least Concern.
Bibliography
- USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. 2015. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Available at: http://www.ars-grin.gov/.
- Vincent, H., Wiersema, J., Kell, S., Fielder, H., Dobbie, S., Castañeda-Álvareza, N.P., Guarino, L.,Eastwood, R., Leόn, B. and Maxted, N. 2013. A prioritized crop wild relative inventory to help underpin global food security. Biological Conservation 167: 265–275.
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