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Plants

A list of root vegetables and tubers. These are edible plants in which the leaves, stems, flowers, or roots are edible. This list does not include edible plants that are funguses, seeds, or treated as fruits. Something to consider: the word vegetable is based on culinary tradition. It is not scientific. Edible plants traditionally used to make savory dishes are typically considered to be <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-most-delicious-vegetables-v1?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">types of vegetables</a>. That said, some vegetables are occasionally used to also make sweet dishes, such as carrots, rhubarb, and even avocados. While some of the vegetables on this list may be eaten raw, more often than not, vegetables are cooked. So whether you're a vegetarian, vegan, or just a well rounded carnivore, enjoy this list of root vegetables and tubers. If you want to add your favorite root veggies to this list, just type in the name and click add. While you're at it, don't forget to vote for your favorites!

The Best Root Vegetables & Tubers

Tasty Root Vegetables

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Carrot

The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh. The most commonly eaten part of a carrot is a taproot, although the greens are sometimes eaten as well. It is a domesticated form of the wild carrot Daucus carota, native to Europe and southwestern Asia. The domestic carrot has been selectively bred for its greatly enlarged and more palatable, less woody-textured edible taproot. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports that world production of carrots and turnips for calendar year 2011 was almost 35.658 million tonnes. Almost half were grown in China. Carrots are widely used in many cuisines, especially in the preparation of salads, and carrot salads are a tradition in many regional cuisines.

Sweet potato

The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are a root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Ipomoea batatas is native to the tropical regions in America. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of Convolvulaceae, I. batatas is the only crop plant of major importance—some others are used locally, but many are poisonous. The sweet potato is only distantly related to the potato and does not belong to the nightshade family.
The genus Ipomoea that contains the sweet potato also includes several garden flowers called morning glories, though that term is not usually extended to Ipomoea batatas. Some cultivars of Ipomoea batatas are grown as ornamental plants; the name "tuberous morning glory" may be used in a horticultural context.
The plant is a herbaceous perennial vine, bearing alternate heart-shaped or palmately lobed leaves and medium-sized sympetalous flowers. The edible tuberous root is long and tapered, with a smooth skin whose color ranges between yellow, orange, red, brown, purple, and beige.

Onion

The onion, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is used as a vegetable and is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. This genus also contains several other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion, the Egyptian onion, and the Canada onion. The name "wild onion" is applied to a number of Allium species but A. cepa is exclusively known from cultivation and its ancestral wild original form is not known, although escapes from cultivation have become established in some regions. The onion is most frequently a biennial or a perennial plant, but is usually treated as an annual and harvested in its first growing season.
The onion plant has a fan of hollow, bluish-green leaves and the bulb at the base of the plant begins to swell when a certain day-length is reached. In the autumn the foliage dies down and the outer layers of the bulb become dry and brittle. The crop is harvested and dried and the onions are ready for use or storage. The crop is prone to attack by a number of pests and diseases, particularly the onion fly, the onion eelworm and various fungi that cause rotting.

Beet

Beta vulgaris is a plant in the Amaranthaceae family. It has numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is the root vegetable known as the beetroot or garden beet. Other cultivated varieties include the leaf vegetable chard; the sugar beet, used to produce table sugar; and mangelwurzel, which is a fodder crop. Three subspecies are typically recognised. All cultivated varieties fall into the subspecies Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris. Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, commonly known as the sea beet, is the wild ancestor of these and is found throughout the Mediterranean, the Atlantic coast of Europe, the Near East, and India. A second wild subspecies, Beta vulgaris subsp. adanensis, occurs from Greece to Syria.
The roots are most commonly deep red-purple in color, but less common varieties include golden yellow and red-and-white striped roots.
Beta vulgaris is an herbaceous biennial or, rarely, perennial plant with leafy stems growing to 1–2 m tall. The leaves are heart-shaped, 5–20 cm long on wild plants. The flowers are produced in dense spikes; each flower is very small, 3–5 mm diameter, green or tinged reddish, with five petals; they are wind pollinated.

Ginger

Ginger is a flowering plant in the family Zingiberaceae whose rhizome, ginger root or simply ginger, is widely used as a spice or a medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual stems about a meter tall bearing narrow green leaves and yellow flowers. Ginger is indigenous to southern China, and was spread eventually to the Spice Islands, other parts of Asia and subsequently to West Africa and the Caribbean. Ginger was exported to Europe via India in the first century AD as a result of the lucrative spice trade. India is now the largest producer of ginger.
Other members of the family Zingiberaceae include turmeric, cardamom, and galangal. The distantly related dicots in the genus Asarum are commonly called wild ginger because of their similar taste.

Radish

The radish is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family that was domesticated in Europe in pre-Roman times. Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, being mostly eaten raw as a crunchy salad vegetable. They have numerous varieties, varying in size, flavor, color and the length of time they take to mature. Radishes of spicy varieties owe their sharp flavor to the various chemical compounds produced by the plants, including glucosinolate, myrosinase, and isothiocyanate. They are sometimes grown as companion plants and suffer from few pests and diseases. They germinate quickly and grow rapidly, smaller varieties being ready for consumption within a month while larger daikon varieties taking several months. Some radishes are grown for their seeds: daikon, for instance, may be grown for oil production. Others are used for sprouting and both roots and leaves are sometimes served cooked.

Parsnip

The parsnip is a root vegetable closely related to the carrot and parsley. It is a biennial plant usually grown as an annual. Its long tuberous root has cream-colored skin and flesh and can be left in the ground when mature as it becomes sweeter in flavor after winter frosts. In its first growing season, the plant has a rosette of pinnate, mid-green leaves. If unharvested, it produces its flowering stem, topped by an umbel of small yellow flowers, in its second growing season. By this time the stem is woody and the tuber inedible. The seeds are pale brown, flat and winged.
The parsnip is native to Eurasia. It has been used as a vegetable since antiquity and was cultivated by the Romans, although there is some confusion in the literature of the time between parsnips and carrots. It was used as a sweetener before the arrival in Europe of cane sugar. It was introduced into the United States in the nineteenth century.
The parsnip is usually cooked but can also be eaten raw. It is high in vitamins and minerals, especially potassium. It also contains antioxidants and both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber.

Potatoes

Burdock

Arctium is a genus of biennial plants commonly known as burdock, family Asteraceae. Native to the Old World, several species have been widely introduced worldwide.

Turnip

The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as feed for livestock.
In the north of England and Scotland, turnip refers to the larger, yellow rutabaga root vegetable, also known as the "swede".

Yellow Lily Yam

Jicama

Black Salsify

Scorzonera hispanica, black salsify or Spanish salsify, also known as black oyster plant, serpent root, viper's herb, viper's grass or simply scorzonera, is a perennial member of the genus Scorzonera in the sunflower family, cultivated as a root vegetable in the same way as salsify, also in the sunflower family.
The scorzonera sweet is a crystallized dessert made from scorzonera in Évora, Alentejo, Portugal. It is listed on the Ark of Taste.

Rutabaga

The rutabaga, swede, turnip, yellow turnip, or neep is a root vegetable that may have originated as a cross between the cabbage and the turnip. The roots are prepared for human food in a variety of ways, and the leaves can be eaten as a leaf vegetable. The roots and tops are also used as winter feed for livestock, when they may be fed directly, or by allowing the animals to forage the plants in the field.

Black Cumin

Parsley Root

Cassava

Manihot esculenta, with common names cassava, Brazilian arrowroot, manioc, and tapioca, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae family native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. Though it is sometimes called yuca in Spanish, it differs from the yucca, an unrelated fruit-bearing shrub in the Asparagaceae family. Cassava, when dried to a powdery extract, is called tapioca; its fermented, flaky version is named garri.
Cassava is the third largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice and maize. Cassava is a major staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for over half a billion people. It is one of the most drought-tolerant crops, capable of growing on marginal soils. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava, while Thailand is the largest exporter of dried cassava.
Cassava is classified as sweet or bitter. Farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, and thieves. Like other roots and tubers, both bitter and sweet varieties of cassava contain antinutritional factors and toxins.

Daikon

Daikon, also known by many other names depending on context, is a mild-flavored winter radish usually characterized by fast-growing leaves and a long white napiform root. Originally native to Southeast or continental East Asia, daikon is harvested and consumed throughout the region but is primarily grown in North America as a fallow crop, with the roots left unharvested to prevent soil compaction and the leaves used as animal fodder.

Ahipa

Native Ginger

Celeriac

Celeriac, also called turnip-rooted celery or knob celery, is a variety of celery cultivated for its edible roots, hypocotyl, and shoots. It is sometimes called celery root.
It was mentioned in Homer's Odyssey as selinon.
Celeriac is a root vegetable with a bulbous hypocotyl. In the Mediterranean Basin and in Northern Europe, celeriac grows wild and is widely cultivated. It is also cultivated in North Africa, Siberia, Southwest Asia, and North America. In North America, the Diamant cultivar predominates. Celeriac originated in the Mediterranean Basin.

Skirret

Celery Root

Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi is an annual vegetable, and is a low, stout cultivar of cabbage. Kohlrabi can be eaten raw as well as cooked.

Yacón

A list of root vegetables and tubers. These are edible plants in which the leaves, stems, flowers, or roots are edible. This list does not include edible ...