Potato and Tuber Crops

Etymology

• Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has no relation to Jerusalem, and it is not a type of artichoke, even though both are members of the Daisy family.
• The origin of the name is uncertain.
• Italian settlers in the USA called the plant Girasole, the Italian word for sunflower because of its resemblance to the garden sunflower.
• Over time the name Girasole may have been corrupted to Jerusalem.
• To avoid confusion some people have recently started to refer to it as sunchoke or sunroot.
• The artichoke part of the Jerusalem artichoke's name comes from the taste of its edible tuber.
• Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer, sent the first samples of the plant to France, noting that its taste was similar to an artichoke.
• Jerusalem artichokes were first cultivated by the Native Americans long before the arrival of the Europeans; this extensive cultivation obscures the exact native range of the species.
• The French explorer Samuel de Champlain found domestically grown plants at Cape Cod in 1605.
• The Jerusalem artichoke was titled 'best soup vegetable' in the 2002 Nice festival for the heritage of the French cuisine.