American Sweet Potato and Sanskrit

[Guest guest]

The American sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, is especially interesting,

because many varieties of it were being grown in Polynesia long before

European contact there (Brücher). Its name there and in America is

close to "kumar" or "camote," which comes from the Sanskrit

word "kumari" (Bailey 1994). The coconut, believed to be from

Southeast Asia, is thought by some to have been present in America when

the Spaniards arrived. Coconuts cannot remain viable after floating

for a long time in seawater.

http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/ethnic/ethnic1.htm