释义 |
Definition of yam bean in English: yam beannoun 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 Example sentencesExamples - The third cultivated species, the Andean yam bean (P. ahipa, locally known as ahipa or ajipa), rarely occurs today outside Bolivia.
- 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.
- 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.
- Like the potato, the yam bean is a tuber - a fleshy subterranean stem.
- It looks like the bastard child of a potato and a coconut, and it's also called a yam bean or a Mexican turnip.
- 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.
- Supercrop: the yam bean, a tuber undaunted by drought, poor soil, or insects, produces astonishing yields.
|