----- Original Message -----
From:
d*@horticulturist.com
To: a*@mobot.org
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2001 11:17
PM
Subject: Re: Off topic question,
Dioscorea sp.!
Dear Derek,
I fully intend to peel, boil in salted water,
mash with butter, and EAT some of those buggers soon! I will
report the results to this L, (IF I survive !) and will certainly let us
all know what they tasted like, and also if the 'signatures' bear any truth,
as at 56 I can use whatever 'help' there may be out there!
:--)>
Cheers,
Julius
>>Joe, I think that Dioscorea bulbifera is
a good name published by Linnaeus - and is the name most often applied to our
little monster (no wings on the stem, aerial tubers and undeground tubers that
are often somewhat paired and with coarse fibrous roots all over them).
"Coarse" was a carefully chosen word in this instance, as you will know if you
have dug one of the hairy devil's up. What a believer in the doctrine of
signatures would use them for is clear, but just how boggles the
imagination.
This plant, by the way, is one of the two or
three that the Exotic Pest Plant Council managed to get right by
including it on their list. Derek<<
