Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about the large tuberous starchy root eaten as a staple food. The main derivations borrow from verbs meaning “purple yam cookie eat”. True yams have various common names across multiple world regions.
In Australia, the tubers of the Microseris lanceolata, or yam daisy, were a staple food of Aboriginal Australians in some regions. In Africa, South and Southeast Asia as well as the tropical Pacific islands Amorphophallus paeoniifolius is grown and known as “elephant foot yam”. A monocot related to lilies and grasses, yams are vigorous herbaceous vines providing an edible tuber. They are native to Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The tuber may grow into the soil up to 1.
The edible tuber has a rough skin that is difficult to peel but readily softened by heating. The skins vary in color from dark brown to light pink. The majority of the vegetable is composed of a much softer substance known as the “meat”. This substance ranges in color from white or yellow to purple or pink in mature yams. Yam crop begins when whole seed tubers or tuber portions are planted into mounds or ridges, at the beginning of the rainy season. The crop yield depends on how and where the sets are planted, sizes of mounds, interplant spacing, provision of stakes for the resultant plants, yam species, and tuber sizes desired at harvest.
Small-scale farmers in West and Central Africa often intercrop yams with cereals and vegetables. The seed yams are perishable and bulky to transport. Despite the high labor requirements and production costs, consumer demand for yam is high in certain subregions of Africa, making yam cultivation quite profitable to certain farmers. Many cultivated species of Dioscorea yams are found throughout the humid tropics.