A vigourous twiner, stems barely woody. This is a monocotyledon, the first that I have brought up in my blog, with no regrets as I am sure this is truly an eye-catcher - for its mysterious looking aerial tubers, (bulbils) - commonly called the air-potato.
This is not a friut! It is a tuber that grows at leaf axils up to a size of a regular pumelo. I have not seen its fruits. Perhaps it doesn't fruit!The bulbils are planted and it grows easily; in some countries it is the "poor man's" food. Elsewhere, it is considered and invasive plant - that it encroaches the space of other plants.
The flowers are tiny, white sometimes pale green. Seen here are the female spikes - up to 20 cm long, the male spikes being shorter about 4 cm.More a food than a medicine. But then, there is no disease worse than hunger!
