ヤムイモ

ヤムは、食用塊茎のために育てられたDioscorea属（Dioscoreaceae科）のいくつかの植物種のいずれかです。ヤムイモは両方の半球のより暖かい地域に固有であり、いくつかの種が熱帯地方の主食作物として栽培されています。特定の熱帯文化、特に西アフリカとニューギニアでは、ヤムイモは主要な農産物であり、精巧な儀式の中心です。ヤムイモはでんぷん質の調理済み野菜として消費されます。彼らはしばしば茹でてから、粘り気のあるペーストまたは生地にすりつぶしますが、ポテトのように揚げたり、ローストしたり、焼いたりすることもできます。

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謎めいた

サツマイモとヤムイモの違いは何ですか？

何食べてるの？

True yams are botanically distinct from the unrelated sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), but moist-fleshed varieties of sweet potato are often called yams in the United States. The air-potato yam (D. bulbifera)is one of the few true yams cultivated for food in the United States.

Yam plants have thick tubers (generally a development of the base of the stem), from which protrude long, slender, annual, climbing stems. The leaves are either alternate or opposite and can be entire or lobed. The unisexual flowers are borne in long clusters. The flowers are generally small and individually inconspicuous though collectively showy. Each consists of a greenish bell-shaped or flat perianth of six pieces, enclosing six or fewer stamens in the male flowers and surmounting a three-celled three-winged ovary in the female flowers. The ovary ripens into a membranous capsule, bursting by three valves to liberate numerous flattish or globose seeds.

Yam flesh ranges in colour from white to yellow, pink, or purple and varies in taste from sweet to bitter to tasteless. Most yams contain an acrid principle that is dissipated in cooking. Indian yam (D. trifida) and winged, or water, yam (D. alata) are the edible species most widely diffused in tropical and subtropical countries. The tubers of D. alata sometimes weigh 45 kg (100 pounds). Guinea yam (D. rotundata) and yellow Guinea yam (D. cayenensis) are the main yam species grown in West Africa. Lesser yam (D. esculenta), grown on the subcontinent of India, in southern Vietnam, and on South Pacific islands, is one of the tastiest yams. Chinese yam (D. polystachya), also known as cinnamon vine, is widely cultivated in East Asia.