Dioscorea Elephantipes

common names:  Elephant's Foot, Tortoise Back Plant, Turtle Back, Turtle Shell

Dioscorea elephantipes is a weird but unique and beautiful plant with a large, exposed tuber covered with greyish, angular, corky plates and annual climbing stems twisting to the left and bearing heart-shaped leaves. The tuber grows very slowly but can reach more than 3.3 feet (1 m) in height and 10 feet (3 m) in diameter. The plant is summer-deciduous, so it drops its leaves in summer. The stems usually die back during the summer, and new shoots appear in winter.

This plant is dioecious, having the male and female flowers in separate plants. The flowers are pale greenish-yellow and usually appear in winter. The male flowers are held in erect, spiny racemes, while the female flowers in spinescent, nodding to spreading spikes.

Origin

Dioscorea elephantipes is native to the dry interior of South Africa.