PlantFiles: Elephant's Foot, Turtleback Plant
Dioscorea macrostachys

Last year in 2007, this bloomed and did not produce seeds. It could be there is no natural pollinator here or it needs two plants blooming at the same time. The flowers are so minute that I couldn't pollinate it even if I tried, you can barely see them.

This year, it is blooming again and it is still outside in mid-November. It will come into the house this week. I probably should have brought it in sooner but the leaves are still green on it and I was waiting for it to go dormant. So, I feel this is proof enough that it can survive cold fronts, we have had slight freezes in the last two weeks. This plant is located near a rockwall and that is what has been keeping it warm at night most likely.

What an interesting plant! I ordered some seeds online about 5 years ago....and tried my hand at germinating them. This particular plant is the only one to survive...and its doing really well. They are slow growers..and are a bit delicate with their watering needs. Also, mine doesn't seem to be able to tolerate any fertilizers...and will actually drop some leaves if I feed it...

Nice looking plant basically exactly same cultivational requirements of similar D elephantipes. This plant has larger, heart-shaped leaves about 3-4" in diameter, while the other plant (D elephantipes) has smaller leaves, most less than 1" in diameter. This plant is often misidentified as the elephantipes one. I have had one outdoors in a zone b for 4 years without ill effect (in a pot).