Back in the summer some friends of ours came to stay bearing a gift of what they (native New Zealander’s) called yams. We planted them in a large tub and they are growing well. Just now I was in the garden and called J over to the yam tub where I had spied pretty yellow flowers

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As we were admiring the flowers a WhatsApp came in from the mother of the family who brought us this gift. She and I rarely exchange emails or messages! She mentioned a photo of the autumn garden that I had blogged last week and hoped that the yams were thriving. Wow! I called her to remark on this strange coincidence. She doesn’t recall ever seeing her yam plants in flower either here or on the other side of the world. By the way these yams have several names. See below.

Oxalis tuberosa is a perennialherbaceous plant that overwinters as underground stem tubers. These tubers are known as uqa in Quechua,^[1]oca in Spanish, yam in New Zealandand a number of other alternative names.