konnyaku

[Baio]

ianyone know if konnyaku is a member of the potato family? is it a nightshade or is it just called a potato because it's an underground tuber?

[John Seavitt]

anyone know if konnyaku is a member of the potato family? is it a nightshade or is it just called a potato because it's an underground tuber?

None of the above, actually. It is the same type of thing as taro root and water chestnut - it is a plant structure that permits the storage of energy as starch to permit winter survival. This makes it distinct from tubers (all yam and potato) and bulbs (onion and whatnot).

John

[Brian Owens]

Konyaku (Amorphophallus Konjac) is often called a potato or yam, but in botanical terms it is neither, as far as I know. It probably gets Anglicized as "potato" or "yam" because it's a tuber, and those are well known tubers.

It's definitely not a nightshade, the way potatos, eggplants, and tomatoes are.
It is, interestingly, related to the philodendron.

HTH.