dioscorea elephantipes (elephant foot plant) from seed.

Went online and got some dioscoreaa elephantis seeds. They look like little propellors that fall off of maple treees.

How to sprout discorea elephantipes: They were easy to sprout in a small pot with good draining cactus mix (1/3 comercial potting soil, 1/3 sand and 1/3 perilite) tied up in a opaque plastic bag and put in a eastern window for two weeks.

just after sprouting you can see
the caudex on this little
dioscorea elephantis seeding

at one month the caudex is much larger

8 months

But some wonderfull day they will look like this

or more likely like this wonderful specimen at the huntington gardens. That may be a while though because this softball sized creature is almost 30 years old.... though probably younger then the tortoises. Maybe older then our shelled friend is this huge specimen also a the huntington gardens.

Oldest dioscorea elephantipes around 80 years

Similar but unrelated here is what it looks like at the top of Devils Pollpile in California