Dioscorea elephantipes - Elephant's Foot

I can just see the tuber (is that the correct word?) - it's still a bit of a tiddler isn't it? Sure that I read they grow really large tubers of a metre or more?

Yes, it's a tuber. There's some larger ones at the SD Zoo.

Slugs,rodents will devour them. Being expensive plants you need to find a safe spot.

Most likely that's why it's growing in this protected spot outdoors.

There's an interesting story on the net of the Huntington finding one under brush that had been thought to have died decades ago. Pasadena has had plenty of frosts over time..it somehow survived.

It's amazing how certain plants can come back years later. I had this happen in the past.