Dioscorea nipponica

Family Dioscoreaceae. Occurring in sparse broad-leaved and mixed forests, at forest edges and in shrubs of the warm-temperate zone of the Far East, China and Japan. The name derives from the Japanese word "Nippon" (Japan).

Rhizome thick, horizontal. Stem glabrous. Leaves alternate, thick, broadly cordate in outline, 3–7-lobed, 6–14 cm long, 4.5–13 cm wide, with sparse short white hairs above, appressed-hairy along the veins beneath, mostly with 9 veins, the outer ones dichotomously branched; petioles mostly equal to the blades. Male flowers greenish-yellow, on short pedicels, in groups of 3–7, more rarely solitary in the nodes of solitary racemes, less commonly in panicles. The perianth tube is slightly longer than the lobes. Stamens 6; anthers oblong-ovoid. Capsule on a very short pedicel, obovoid, mostly with a notched apex, 1.6-2.5 cm long, 1.3-2 cm wide.