CJB - Base de données des plantes d'Afrique

Vine to 5-10 m long; tuber replaced annually, solitary, deeply lobed or main tuber with several smaller tubers in a dense cluster 2,5-7 cm Ø, spreading or to 30 cm deep from soil surface; indumentum of simple straight or curved hairs, 0,1-1 mm long, on stems, leaves (on upper surface coarse, on lower surface soft), capsule wings; stems usually annual, left-twining, with prickles especially towards base; leaves alternate, 3-foliolate, anteriour leaflet apex obtuse to rounded or rarely truncate, apiculate to long-acuminate, to 21 cm long; petiole to 20 cm long, pubescent, somewhat prickly; petiolules to 1 cm long; leaflets asymmetrical; male inflorescence usually only present when leaves are fully expanded, compound; partial inflorescences sessile, rarely on rather stout peduncles to 5 mm long; flowers dense, hiding axis; capsule with 3 longitudinal wings, 3,1-5,3x1,5-2,5 cm, sparsely pubescent; seeds winged at base.

Ecologie :	Edges of rain-forest; dry evergreen forest; evergreen bushland; termite hills in Brachystegia woodland; edge of savanna; persisting in plantations and in secondary thickets and grasslands; roadsides; riverbanks; rocky areas; wooded savannas; hollows; forest gallery; marigot edges; regrowths; fallows; lateritic soils; Combretum-Terminalia woodland; 0-2020 m alt.
	Tubers used as famine food, after washing and drying to remove toxic alkaloids.
	S. Tomé, Príncipe, Annobón; S. Africa. Material cited from Asia is D. hispida Dennst. (or are they conspecific ?, cf. Wilkin & Thapyai, Fl. Thailand 10/1: 71, 2009).