[wombatmobile]

So, it's an unclassified botanical specimen. That's not really a "mystery". It's just an unclassified botanical specimen.

This makes the product application of the root even less mysterious:

"It was seasoned with salt, chili powder, and lime; my husband’s had sugar and lime. It was crunchy, juicy, and refreshing, but had no taste of its own."

[rsynnott]

It's _extremely_ weird that there is a commonly sold food, and no-one can figure out what it is. In particular, the vendors are unwilling to talk about it, and where pushed vaguely claim it's an agave, but the agave expert says it's not (of course, maybe he's wrong).

The whole thing is fascinating. It's a low-stakes mystery, but a mystery all the same.

[citizenpaul]

Based on the comment about

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphide in agave can be toxic. And the fact that it is only sold in paper thin strips. My guess is the vendors are aware that it is poison but in those parts of the world life is cheap and money is hard to come by. So they just ignore this and carry on selling it. Anyone asking might be there investigating the cause of some of their health issues.