{"id":61535,"date":"2025-09-01T14:18:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T08:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=61535"},"modified":"2025-09-01T14:19:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T08:49:22","slug":"dioscorea-balakrishnanii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/dioscorea-balakrishnanii\/","title":{"rendered":"Dioscorea balakrishnanii"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Dioscorea balakrishnanii Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers from Kerala have identified an edible tuber and named it as Dioscorea balakrishnanii.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Dioscorea balakrishnanii<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is an <\/span><b>edible tuber<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found in the Western Ghats region of <\/span><b>Wayanad district of Kerala.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a new species of the <\/span><b>genus Dioscorea.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This yam species is <\/span><b>locally known as \u2018chola kizhangu\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among the <\/span><b>Kattunayikar tribes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of Wayanad. The tubers are edible when cooked and are said to have an excellent flavour<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is found only in the <\/span><b>sholas of evergreen forests.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The species holds potential as a tuber variety for <\/span><b>food security and cultivation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a food crop with low glycemic index.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since there are male and female varieties, Dioscorea balakrishnanii was continuously observed for the last ten years and the differences in the flowers have been recorded.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Wayanad region of the Western Ghats is rich in unique wild tubers, relatives of the commonly cultivated tubers known <\/span><b>as kachil or kavat (purple yam).<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These belong to the plant family Dioscoreaceae and 23 different forms of more than 14 species.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Significance:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The discovery of this new tuber is of <\/span><b>significance for the conservation of unique ecosystems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and unique wild relatives as well as food security and the medicinal sector.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/researchers-identify-new-tuber-species-from-western-ghats-in-keralas-wayanad-district\/article69997297.ece#:~:text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dioscorea balakrishnanii is an edible tuber found in the Western Ghats region of Wayanad district of Kerala. Read more about Dioscorea balakrishnanii, Discovery, Habitat, Significance, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":61552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2440],"class_list":{"0":"post-61535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-dioscorea-balakrishnanii","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}