The plant parasitic nematode status of four yam species; D. alata, D. cayensis, D. dometurum and D. rotundata in four communities in Khana LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria was carried out. 160 randomly selected seed yams comprising 40 yam samples from each of the communities in the study area were sampled. 40 yam samples from each of the communities comprising ten yams each from the four species of yams examined. Each yam sample was processed by peeling the periderm (one inch thick) and separately macerating them with a blender at low speed. These were placed on Bearmann’s Trays for nematode extraction. A total of 886 nematodes were recovered from all the samples out of which 83.26% of the nematodes came from D.rotundata, 16.0% came from D. cayensis, 0.48% from D. alata and 0.24% from D. dometurum. Five nematode genera and species were recovered from the sampled yams; Aphelenchus spp., (8.5%), Practylenchus spp. (14.65%), Meloidogyne spp. (22.66%), Scutellonema spp. (53.88%) and Tylenchus spp. (0.24%). Nematode infectivity was greatly influenced by host specific factors which manifested in the variability in susceptibility, tolerance and resistance of the yam species. D.dometurum was resistant to the parasitic worms while D. rotundata was highly susceptible to nematodes. There was slight geographical specificity in the distribution of Aphelenchus and Tylenchus species in the four study sites. The study revealed that Aphelenchus and Tylenchus species were poor parasites of Dioscorea spp. whose presence may be attributed to accidental infection due mixed cropping that is the prevalent cultural practice in the study area.