Todd Moody wrote:

> It would be useful to develop as complete a list of the root
> vegetables, common and obscure, as possible.  I suspect there are
> many that have become forgotten foods in developed societies.

Here is a beginning:
Roots, common:
  carrots, turnips, rutabagas, celeriac, parsnip, horseradish, beets,
  jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), radish, daikon, water chestnut,
  taro, yam, jicama, burdock, kudzu

Less common:
  scorzonera hispanica (black salsify)
  tragopogon spp. (salsify)
  chaerophyllum bulbosum (turnip-rooted chervil)
  stachys affinis (crosnes)
  medeola virginiana (cucumber root)
  bunium bulbocastanum (earth chestnut)
  sium sisarum (skirret)
  polymia sanchifolia (yacon)
  parsnip-rooted parsley

all the above are available from the Seed Saver's Exchange

Some edible roots from the western U.S.:

typha spp (cattails)
nuphar spp (pond lily)
Calochortus spp (mariposa, sego lily)
Camassia spp (camass)
Scirpus spp (tule, bulrush)
Sagittaria spp (arrowhead, wapatoo)
Polygonum bistortoides (bistort)
Psoralea spp (breadroot, Indian potato)
Perideridia spp (yampa, squawroot)

Other edible wild roots:

Apios americana (groundnut)
Cyperus esculentus (chufa, nutgrass)


Lynnet