Dioscorea elephantipes

We don't have a lot of flowers right now. (Actually we have one rose bud which has been trying to open for the last month or so and hasn't been hit by the couple of hard frosts we've had so far.) But even when we don't have flowers, we have the plants themselves. Our eyes are especially drawn to the pachyform plants such as this Dioscorea elephantipes.
This is the famous "Elephant's Foot" from southwestern South Africa. Not a difficult plant to grow if you remember to hold back on the water when the plant is dormant and the vine dies back during the heat of summer. Also, patience is a virtue as the plant isn't especially fast growing. But they'll live for up to 70 years in cultivation.