樹薯

esculenta: edible

Shrub or small tree up to 5 m tall, cultivated for its edible root tubers which are widely used as a staple food source. Stems brittle, branching dichotomously, often blueish-grey when young; whitish watery sap present. Leaves up to 15 × 25 cm, deeply divided into 3-7 oblanceolate lobes, dark green above, paler blue-green beneath, almost hairless or slighly pubescent near the midrib; margin entire; petiole up to 25 cm long, often reddish-purple. Inflorescences in lax terminal heads, 2-11 cm long. Flowers unisexual in the same inflorescence, greenish tinged orange-red and often with purplish veining. Fruit ellipsoid to subglobose, up to 17 × 15 mm, greenish, finely wrinkled, six-winged.

Very occasionally naturalized

Native probably in eastern South America; widely cultivated throughout tropical Africa and tropical regions elsewhere.