Long Grass Nature Refuge
Fauna and Flora Detail
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Wildlife Management System
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Scientific Name
Common Name
Type
Notes
Slender, tuberous, vine with annual twining stems up to 4m long; widespread, chiefly in warmer rainforest and wet sclerophyll, from Stanwell Tops, NSW north to CYP, NW Qld and NT. Also occurs in PNG. (AVH). Leaves simple, alternate; broadly triangular, 5-12cm long x 2-8cm wide, base cordate or hastate, (the basal lobes often projecting backwards), apex acuminate, drawn out to a fine point, both surfaces glabrous; venation markedly longitudinal, lateral veins sometimes indistinct. Petioles slender up to half as long as the lamina, often twisted and with a swelling near the apex. Flowers small, greenish-white, tepals about 2mm long; male and female flowers borne separately in axillary spikes and racemes on the same plant. Flowering in spring Fruit a capsule, ± globose, 2-3cm long, sharply 3-lobed, seeds 5mm long, winged. This vine is an important food plant for hawk moths. The black and white skipper butterfly also feeds on this yam and has been slowly moving south from it's original populations at Mackay munching on these plants. (SOWN) The root was cooked in ashes and then eaten. In some tribes the yams were crushed and washed in water before cooking. Small tubers were eaten raw. A decoction was applied to skin cancer by some North Queensland tribes. (Lieper) Maiden (in 1914) described an acute irritation of the hands and arms in persons washing the pulped tubers from this species. The incident occurred in New South Wales during the production of arrowroot, a starch product. Dioscorea - Genus named for Pedanios Dioscorides, first century Greek pharmacologist.
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