Dioscorea alata
| Purple Yam | |
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| Purple yam at Maui, Hawaii | |
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| Purple yam tuber | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| Order: | Dioscoreales |
| Family: | Dioscoreaceae |
| Genus: | Dioscorea |
| Species: | D. alata |
| Binomial name | |
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Dioscorea alata L. |
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| Synonyms | |
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Dioscorea alata, known as purple yam and many other names, is a species of yam, a tuberous root vegetable. The tubers are usually bright lavender in color, hence the common name, but they may sometimes be white. It is sometimes confused with taro and the Okinawa sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas cv. Ayamurasaki), although D. alata is also grown in Okinawa where it is known as beniimo (紅芋?). With its origins in the Asian tropics, D. alata has been known to humans since ancient times.
Because it has become naturalized throughout tropical South America, Africa, Australia, the US southeast, D. alata has many different common names from these regions. In English alone, aside from purple yam, other common names include greater yam, Guyana arrowroot, ten-months yam, water yam, white yam, winged yam, or simply yam. In other cultures and languages it is known variously as ratalu or violet yam in India, rasa valli kilangu (இராசவள்ளிக்கிழங்கு) in Tamil, dandila (දන්දිල) in Sinhala, thuppa genasu (ತುಪ್ಪ ಗೆಣಸು) in Kannada, thoona or soona kerungu (ತೂ/ಸೂಣ ಕೆರುಂಗು) in Tulu, kondfal (कोंदफळ) in Marathi, kachil (കാച്ചില്) in Malayalam, and khoai mỡ in Vietnam. For the Igbo people of southern Nigeria, it is called ji or ji abana; while for the Yoruba people of the southwestern Nigeria, it is called isu ewura.
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Wikipedia