[NelsonMinar]

"This looks like a giant variety of Jicama"... A giant variety that has heretofor been unknown to the world? Hacker News, we cracked the case!

Edit I feel like I should explain the snark. The comment I'm replying to is coming from a classic flaw in human reasoning. "This looks kinda like this other thing I'm familiar with. So clearly it must be some variety of that!" Then it's couched in some authoritative sounding words so folks nod sagely and say "yes, that must be it" and press the upvote button. The fact that the commenter is hypothesizing a heretofor-unknown giant variety of a major world food crop is, well, sometimes sarcasm is the appropriate response.

Meanwhile, the actual article tells us a lot more about the thing including a bunch of evidence for why folks think it's a variety of agave. Along with some mysteries, yes! But none saying "oh maybe this is actually jicama".

Also if you're going to go with "this reminds me of this other vegetable" it might be useful to have a bit more breadth of understanding of the world's food staples. There are more than quite a few stachy tubers, roots, and stems like this. Cassava, taro, about six different things all called "yam" in English, potato, turnip, radish. There are many, many cultivated plants like this. The distinguishing characteristic of this one is its huge size. Something that jicama doesn't have.

[esquivalience]

Respectfully, you inferred the conclusion "So clearly it must be some variety of that!". GF doesn't say that, they merely say it may be like that and that the explanation given in the article doesn't agree with their experience.

[mekoka]

Respectfully, GF quite explicitly also dismissed the claim that it is agave.

Meanwhile the article states that there is established scientific evidence that it is (probably the Sesalana species), in the form of an 89% DNA match, but more likely the trunk part of the plant rather than the root (as initially claimed by vendors).