Testudinaria
(from testudo, a tortoise; alluding to a supposed resemblance inthe outside roots). ORD. Dioscoreaceae. A small genus (two species) of greenhouse twiners, endemic in South Africa. Flowers dioecious, small, racemose in the axils, resembling those of Dioscorea. Leaves alternate, caudate or sub-deltoid. T. elephantipes, the species best known to cultivators, is an interesting plant, succeeding well in thoroughly-drained, sandy loam. During the period of rest, it should be kept dry. Increased by imported roots.
T. elephantipes.* Elephant's Foot; Hottentot Bread; Tortoise-plant. fl. greenish-yellow, sometimes dark-spotted, rather long-pedicellate; male racemes axillary, solitary, 1 1/4in. to 1 3/4in. long, simple, sometimes simply branched below; females axillary, solitary, pedunculate, few-flowered, scarcely 1in. long. July. l. broadly cordate-ovate, sub-reniform, with a stout mucro, seven to nine-nerved, complicated. h. 10ft. 1774.(B. R. 921; B. M. 1347, under name of Tamus elephantipes.)