Yuca

This is the most important native tuber of eastern Central America and the northeast coast of South America — as important as the potato on the Pacific side. Unlike potatoes, yuca won’t grow outside the tropics. Also unlike potatoes, it has very large starch granules that make it waxy and almost translucent when cooked (it is the source of tapioca). As a result, when it is piping hot, it has a densely starchy quality that its fans find irresistible, but it becomes unpleasantly heavy and gluey on cooling.