noun

• A Central American climbing plant of the pea family, which has been cultivated for its edible tubers (jicama) since pre-Columbian times.

  Pachyrhizus erosus, family Leguminosae

  ‘It looks like the bastard child of a potato and a coconut, and it's also called a yam bean or a Mexican turnip.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Like the potato, the yam bean is a tuber - a fleshy subterranean stem.’
  • ‘Supercrop: the yam bean, a tuber undaunted by drought, poor soil, or insects, produces astonishing yields.’
  • ‘Its sustainability is unmatched by any cereal, even maize, and for exactly that reason a number of traditional farming systems cultivate maize and yam bean together.’
  • ‘The third cultivated species, the Andean yam bean (P. ahipa, locally known as ahipa or ajipa), rarely occurs today outside Bolivia.’
  • ‘Besides being consumed as food, the yam bean has been used in numerous other ways in traditional societies: It serves as an aid to lactation in nursing mothers, as a digestive, and as an antipyretic.’
  • ‘Moreover, once harvested, all yam bean tubers can be kept in a natural state for several months without significant deterioration, whereas manioc roots must be covered with paraffin to discourage desiccation and the growth of fungi.’