Chinese yam

Chinese yam (Dioscorea escalenta) or lesser yam, also ñame papa and ñame pequeño (and just ñame, where I found it), is fairly uncommon in the United States. Cluster yam, as Franklin Martin calls it, “is best known near its place of origin, Indochina, and in adjacent islands, but occurs throughout the East.” The fairly uniform ones I collected looked rather like long russets except for tufts of disorderly rootlets. The very thin skin can almost be rubbed off. The flesh is typically slick, slippery, and pale, and browns rapidly.