SC - New World Foods-list

[Decker, Terry D.]

I'm an American and what I call yams are members of Dioscorea.  I probably
errored in not using scientific nomenclature in my comments.

As you point out yam is used to mean two completely different groups of
plants in English, but in terms of available foodstuffs in 16th Century
Europe, the yam would be African and could not be excluded because it was of
New World origin.  I really need to check the OED to see when yam was first
used to refer the sweet potato.  

Bear

> Bear wrote:
> >Yams are of African origin and were probably brought into Europe early in
> >the 14th Century.
> 
> Yes, but what Americans call yams are of New World origin. African 
> yams are a whole different vegetable.
> 
> Both what Americans call Sweet Potatoes (with deep orangy yellow 
> flesh) *AND* what Americans call Yams (with pale yellow flesh) are 
> just two varieties of the same plant, both from the New World, with 
> flesh of differing shades of yellow and purplish, mostly smooth skin, 
> both Ipomoea batatas.
> 
> What are called yams that are from Africa is something one rarely 
> finds in America, and is a tuber with white flesh and rough cocoa 
> brown skin, and are from a number of different plants within genus 
> Dioscorea.
> 
> Anahita al-shazhiya
> 
>