Ancestors

Toot

Written by SoonLeeNZ on 2024-12-09 at 05:50

I grew up in Malaysia, so for me, "yam" can mean any of three different things...

Colocasia esculenta a.k.a. taro, is "yam" in Malaysia

Oxalis tuberosa a.k.a oca is "yam" in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Ipomoea batatas a.k.a. kūmara a.k.a. sweet potato is "yam" in North America.

[#]yam #food #etymology

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Descendants

Written by Phil Stevens :tinoflag: on 2024-12-09 at 08:25

@soonleenz When I studied African literature at uni I learned that the yam grown in Nigeria is another genus altogether: Dioscorea. Looking around Wikipedia I found the "Chinese yam" (D. esculenta) is SE Asian and grown around much of the Pacific, but never made it here or to Hawai'i. But maybe also known in Malaysia?

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Written by Thomas Lumley on 2024-12-10 at 07:18

@phil_stevens @soonleenz there's also the Australian bush yam or pencil yam, another Dioscorea species, which is important in central Australia -- and in art from the Utopia area of the Centre

(https://japingkaaboriginalart.com/articles/vibrant-colours-womens-yam-dreaming/)

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Written by SoonLeeNZ on 2024-12-11 at 00:53

@phil_stevens I honestly have no idea. But clearly, there is a lot more to the "yam" story I am only now learning!

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Written by Kelsey Jordahl on 2024-12-09 at 16:46

@soonleenz @skinnylatte heh, even in North America I am confused, my local grocery store sells yellow sweet potatoes as "yams" and white ones as "sweet potatoes". I grew up calling them all sweet potatoes. I think there are actually two unrelated families of vegetable, one native to Africa and one native to the Americas, but "yam" has been used for both for hundreds of years.

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/difference-between-sweet-potato-and-yam

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