''Dioscorea acuminata'' is a

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

vine in the family ''

Dioscoreaceae Dioscoreaceae () is a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants, with about 715 known species in nine genera. The best-known member of the family is the yam (some species of '' Dioscorea''). The APG system (1998) and APG II system (2003) both ...

'', which is listed as an endangered species by the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

. It is indigenous to the central plateau of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

where it occurs on rocky substrate in a grassland-woodland mosaic habitat. There is confusion as to whether the tuber is harvested for consumption by humans as field researchers likely misidentified ''Dioscorea maciba'' as this species. However, the IUCN Red List also has an entry for ''D. maciba'' which does not cite that species as being consumed by humans.

References

acuminata Taxa named by John Gilbert Baker {{Monocot-stub