Jicama
Pachyrhizus erosus
A tropical legume grown for a crisp, slightly sweet tuber. The seeds and mature pods are not food (they contain rotenone-related chemistry). The brown-skinned tuber is the grocery item.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
Also called: yam bean
What it is
A tropical legume grown for a crisp, slightly sweet tuber. The seeds and mature pods are not food (they contain rotenone-related chemistry). The brown-skinned tuber is the grocery item.
Edible portions
- tuber only
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. 10–12 or a long hot season
- Light. Full sun, heat
- Soil. Loose
- Planting. Long season vine. Needs heat to swell a tuber.
- Harvest. Before cold; the vine is frost-tender.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Raw sticks with chili and lime
- Slaw
Nutrition and compounds
- Vitamins (qualitative, well-known associations). vitamin C, fiber — not milligram values.
AAA interpretation Food first. These associations explain why a plant shows up in a nutrient conversation — they are not a supplement shopping list.
Safety
- Eat the tuber. Do not eat the seeds or mature pods.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- USDA FoodData Central — nutrient profiles for foods (verify current entries; this page does not invent milligrams)
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.