ABSTRACT
All the edible species named are vegetatively propagated in commercial cultivation. Flowering seldom occurs and formation of fertile seed is an even rarer occurrence, except in selections from certain species. The rapid improvement of edible yam species to the point where they can contribute more significantly to world staple food supply depends on discovery of mechanisms for induction of flowering in the existing high-quality varieties. The early pantropic distribution of Dioscorea might reflect a great antiquity for the cultivated yams. Flowers are produced in leaf axils which also have the capacity for generation of lateral vegetative shoots and bulbils in the course of growth and development of a single yam plant and of tubers and a primary nodal complex during sprouting of stem cuttings.
