Mountain eggs, sweet potatoes... What other "local names" are there for potatoes from your hometown?

Potatoes are a nutritious root crop with a variety of tastes, and they play an important role in people's daily diet. Potatoes have a very high nutritional value. They are rich in carbohydrates, dietary fiber, protein, fat, B vitamins, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium and other nutrients needed by the human body. So the question is, what do you call potatoes in your dialect?

01 Potatoes belong to the Solanaceae family?

In my hometown of Shanxi, it is called "yam egg" or simply "mountain egg", and there is even a novel school called "Yam Egg School" for it; and in my current Yunnan, it is called "potato".

The name of this crop has a very obvious local style . The real name of potato is potato, which is a typical potato crop. However, it should be pointed out that potato crops themselves are not a genus or a family, but each has its own genus.

For example, potatoes belong to the Solanaceae family, which is a large family. Many species are familiar to us, but they are very different. Many people know that eggplants belong to the Solanaceae family. Tomatoes are called tomatoes, which can be understood as eggplants. But peppers are also Solanaceae, which is a bit strange, right? In addition, wolfberries are also Solanaceae. There is also something that is very common but basically not eaten: tobacco, which is also Solanaceae.

Because the Solanaceae family of crops are so different, it is difficult to put their common names together with other crops in the same family. Here are some names for potatoes in different places.

02 The names of potatoes in Shanxi and other places

In Shanxi, potatoes are called "yam eggs". Although there are some so-called legends, judging from the time when potatoes were introduced into my country, it is more likely that this legend is fabricated.

It is more because of the similarity between yam eggs and yam itself, although yam is from Dioscorea family and yam eggs are from Solanaceae family.

They are grown in the soil and have similar skin colors, except that one is stick-shaped and the other is ball-shaped, so people borrowed the name of yam and named it yam egg based on its appearance.

For example, Shanxi’s Loufan yam eggs have obtained the agricultural product geographical indication.

Interestingly, a literary school was formed in Shanxi because of this, which is a contemporary novel literary school represented by Zhao Shuli, which was formed from the 1950s to the mid-1960s. The main writers include Ma Feng, Xi Rong, Li Shuwei, Sun Qian, Hu Zheng, etc., known as "Xi Li Ma Hu Sun". These people are all rural writers in Shanxi, with a deep foundation in rural life. Most of their works were published in the Shanxi literary and art magazine "Huohua".

The more well-known work is "Xiao Erhei Gets Married"

03 The names of potatoes in Yunnan and other places

In Yunnan and other places, potatoes are called "yangyu". This naming style is obviously imported, "foreign" + "local", such as the names of a large number of imported items from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, such as "matches", "foreign oil", "foreign nails", etc. According to the historical records in the "Hui Ze County Chronicles" in 1726, potatoes were introduced to Yunnan and other places by land from India and Myanmar, so the naming naturally has a "foreign" color.

The more typical local crop in the area is "taro", which belongs to the Araceae family, such as konjac and taro.

They look similar and are edible underground parts, so the name was borrowed.

It is worth mentioning that, according to research, the routes of potato introduction to Yunnan are various, including India/Myanmar, Vietnam, and Guizhou/Sichuan, but the name "yangyu" was chosen in the end. For example, Huize big yangyu is also a geographical indication of agricultural products.

It is worth mentioning that in Beijing, which is close to Shanxi, potatoes are called potatoes. In the records during the Wanli period, it was clearly stated that potatoes grown in Beijing were called potatoes. The origins may not be consistent.

However, it is currently difficult to determine when potatoes were introduced into China, because potatoes were introduced to China in a variety of ways, so the names were also formed in different places. But now, China has become the world's largest potato producing country.