Dioscorea Species, Elephant's Foot, Khoisan Bread, Tortoise Plant

About a dozen years ago, I purchased a Dioscorea with a caudex smaller than a ping pong ball from a nursery in Rosemead, CA. Price: $10 ...Read More

It remained in its 3" plastic pot for several years, in spite of a squirrel having eaten most of its caudex the first year. It was in mostly shade for that period and still grew fairly well. I only brought it into the garage on the coldest winter nights, otherwise it was outdoors all year.

Several years ago I gave it a larger terracotta pot with a quick-draining mix and placed it where it gets filtered sun and bright shade. The caudex has grown rapidly ever since, and at this point it's in a 12" round bowl with caudex at least the size of a softball. Just within the last few weeks it has shed last year's growth and is sending out four of the largest, longest shoots I've seen yet.

Again, it has to get to freezing or below before I'll move it into the garage until the cold snap passes, otherwise it's outdoors all winter here in the Bay Area.

I don't have any type of routine for care. I water it very little during its growing/green period and keep it out of the rain during the winter. I think it's much nicer to observe when in a container, and since we have clay soil, it wouldn't be wise to plant it in the ground anyway.

I wish it would bloom. I've given it Rapid Bloom in the past with no effect, so stopped trying. If there's a special trick to producing blooms, I'd love to hear about it.

P.S. -- When I visited the same nursery a few years ago, one of these with a golf ball sized caudex was priced at $80!

I have this growing outside in Sugar Land Texas (near Houston). It is on the west side of the house in an older neighborhood. It loves i...Read Moret here. I treat it like any other plant that grows in the garden. It gets water from the automatic sprinklers. It has flowered a few times as well. They are hard to spot at first, hiding under all those leaves. I have to keep track of its very woody vine stems so I can keep it on a trellis, otherwise it just balls up all over itself. The local green anole lizards love this thing. The only downside so far has been an invasion of the newly arrived Mexican elongate twig ants who love this plant. They don't bother the plant and they generally don't bite people, but they get all over my patio table and try to take it over. These ants also like some of my other woody plants like the nearby red bird of paradise, so it's not just the elephant foot! The leaves eventually die off in the early spring as the new growth comes out.

Was gifted some seeds for this last summer, and started them outdoors in a pot. Out of 3 seeds sown only 1 survived to grow to a seedling...Read More.

Taken them indoors about a couple of weeks before 1st frost. In the brief initial growth spurt the stem (caudex) grew from barely visible to about 0.5cm diameter, with 2 leaves.

The growth kinda slowed down with the indoor lighting (basement, overwinter light setup), hope it'll grow more in the spring!

Also known as Hottentot's Bread as the caudex contains starchy goodness that's edible and prized by said tribe. I won't eat mine, I don't think :) incredibly cute caudiciform plant!

This is a hearty plant and interesting conversation piece. The vines grow rapidly and last year it was well over 6 feet in vine length wi...Read Moreth branching. The roots do come out the side and if you don't check it you won't notice that there are new ones to cover. We keep ours in a clay pot outdoors in semi-shade in summer and indoors in winter {as it snows here} with indirect lighting and it has done well and is healthy.