Sunchoke, Jerusalem Artichoke

Also topinambour (and variations), sunroot

How ironic that one of the very few North American crops to be introduced to Europe should be based on a South American name, topinambou! And how absurd that the name in England and North America, Jerusalem artichoke, probably derives from a distorted Italian one! Long before Europeans set foot in North America, Native Americans were gathering and cultivating Helianthus species (for both seeds and tubers) in many parts of the continent—and using their own languages to describe them. The botanical name, incidentally, is straightforward: Helianthus is from the Greek helios (sun) and anthos (flower); tuberosus applies to the tubers produced on the underground root stalks.