Dioscoreaceae: Air Potato

[gregmartin]

Does anyone have tubers of the non-bitter, cultivated edible form of Dioscorea bulbifera here in the US that they'd be willing to share? I know that they're here, but they seem to be very rare. I'd like to grow it in my sunroom as a houseplant while trying to cross it to D. polystachya
(formerly D. batatas, cinnamon vine) to try and increase its hardiness while improving the size of the aerial tubers of polystachya.

The other thought is to try increasing ploidy to see if larger aerial tubers result. Working with seedlings of D.polystachya may be out as there only seem to be male selections available here.

[nicolas]

I'd tried to locate these d**n edible cultivars for years. Taylor and myself have same plans as you, but this breeding project as many challenges. But too many perspectives not to try it though I've seen pictures of dioscorea grafts so if we cant figure how to deal with male/female selections,we can still try some graft hybridization

I may finally receive a tuber from a french colonny this year so maybe i'll have material if i successfully grow the plant.

[gregmartin]

Nicolas, good luck to you. I really hope you get that tuber! Although it's nice to have easier projects, the challenging ones are all the more interesting, aren't they?

[nicolas]

Picturing landscapes of garden or food forest full of hardy no-dig starch tubers in vines helps a lot