This is a photo from Copenhagen Botanical Garden, which have a really big
one.
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This beautiful member of the Dioscoreaceae
family was given this name
by Engler in 1908 (first by L´Her.). It is from southern
Africa, where it prefer good peat. The caudex
will grow to more than a meter in diameter, the vines reaches easy 5
meters. Both male and female flowers are yellow, and the seeds the only
way to reproduce. I got mine both in Roskilde in 1990/2001.
My plants are dormant from time to time! It seems like it will never learn
to live in the northern hemisphere. The caudex must be kept in shade.
Heard of one, who had sown three seeds from the same plant in one
pot. One of them was a winter-grower, the other one a summer-grower
and the third from time to time - in the same pot still!
This
is the record of dormantsy of my plant. It did not get out of
the last one.
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Wild ones from Clanwilliam,
South Africa.




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It's a dioecious caudiciform, I got two, but I haven't seen them flower.
This is male-flowers from Copenhagen Botanical Garden.

This
is fruits from Copenhagen Botanical Garden.

And wild fruits
from Clanwilliam, South Africa.

And from
Copenhagen Botanical Garden.

Not the most
nice habitat! Taken over by a dumpsite.

Tend to be like
this, when it is grown real rough, like in nature.
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