So, I've just recently started digging holes for where some trees, vines, bushes, and the square garden will go, and in almost every hole there are these strange white, for lack of a better word, carrots. They can be anywhere from half an inch to 3 or 4 inches, and most of them have roots or sprouts of some kind. In the front yard, they come up by the shovel-full!
Are they weeds? Are they edible? I live near the coast and the soil is very sandy here, do these things thrive in this kind of soil? What would be the best way to get rid of them, if they are weeds?
Thanks!

UPDATE:
So, against my better judgement, I took a small bite, and it had a sort of onion-esque flavor to it. It definitely seems like it could be edible.
After doing a bit of googling, the closest I could find as to what this may be is a "crosne", which is apparently a delicacy of some kind and is native to Japan, which makes me think I may have it wrong. It does seem like a tuber of some kind, though.

Okay, first I have to yell at you. NEVER NEVER EAT, TASTE, OTHERWISE PUT IN YOUR MONTH, ANYTHING YOU HAVEN'T IDENTIFIED!!!

I'm done.

(glad you are still with us)

It could very well be Crosne. They are native to Asia but do very well in several places in the US, including North Carolina.

DaisyI said:Okay, first I have to yell at you. NEVER NEVER EAT, TASTE, OTHERWISE PUT IN YOUR MONTH, ANYTHING YOU HAVEN'T IDENTIFIED!!!

I'm done.

(glad you are still with us)

It could very well be Crosne. They are native to Asia but do very well in several places in the US, including North Carolina.

And sorry about the whole tasting thing! I'll try not to let it happen again

It looks like a native, Stachys. Compare to this one:
Florida Betony (Stachys floridana)

Agree with the admonishment for tasting something unknown. You got lucky.

Betony is known for being edible, and I say it's not bad, as far as eating the "weeds" goes. Daggone unruly to try to cultivate/harvest though. The foliage might be up to a foot away from the edible rhizome.

I agree no one should ever taste or eat anything unless and until you have a positive ID from a local person.

That being said, I call that plant Rattlesnake weed and I feed it to my rabbits. They like the green part and they enjoy the roots after I wash off all the soil. I suppose I could eat the roots if I wanted to, but...nope. Better to let the rabbits enjoy the harvest.

http://www.eattheweeds.com/flo...

I eat Florida stachys.
I would not call it oniony, but rather... Radishy... But, actually a lot nicer than radish.
After digging, I keep the tubers in the fridge, one time.... I left a bowl of them setting out on the counter.... The cats ate them all.

Next time, please provide a pic of the plant as well as the root...

Stachys is incredibly aggressive, so whether you have rattlesnake weed, or crosne, you may as well eat all that you can dig.... You will never get them all.
I've been slicing them up into the ramen noodles.... At the very end... They don't get cooked as much as merely warmed through... Good eatin'.

Thank you everyone for your replies! It definitely seems like these are Florida Betonys.
And thank you all for the advice. I assumed that just breaking the skin with my teeth, not really even a true bite, just to see what kind of flavor it had couldn't do any harm, but it seems that the general consensus is that that was a pretty stupid move of me... Definitely not gonna try something like that again!

Don't feel too bad, someone had to be the first person to eat a tomato.
But... It's always better to learn from someone else's experience....

Re getting rid of Florida betony...
I've actually killed a patch of this stuff by covering the ground with visqueen (roll plastic), and then.... Cover that with old wall to wall carpet, and then.... Mulch.
Leave forever.

With a small patch, I did take up the carpet and plastic after a couple of years, and the stachys appeared dead...

That was before I decided that having the tubers was worth while....

You hear about people attempting to sift them out of the soil.... Never works....

The extension service suggests hitting them with poison when in bloom.... They talk about percentages killed...

Doesn't sound good... If you only kill a percentage.... Then... All the plants left... Spread.
And... How are you gonna eat them, after poisoning them?

What a pretty plant! But apparently also invasive. I've never seen it before. Where is it native to?

As a genus, the species are widespread:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

S. floridana is native to warmer climates in north America:
https://plants.usda.gov/core/p...

This is one of the most invasive plants I have ever come in contact with! I dug through and entire bed by my koi pond trying to eradicate it--I managed to slow it down a bit last summer, but it is back this spring taking over the bed. If you leave even the tiniest piece of root, it will come back. I HATE it!! It also has a peculiar smell when you pull it up; can't quite identify it, but maybe radish-y would describe it.

On a lighter note, a friend of mine came by one evening while I was toiling away digging it out of the bed, and she wanted to know why I was getting rid of all the lovely purple flowers?!

I know where a large patch of this stuff is...
Collected a snack!

A native can't invade its' own territory. Being native doesn't equal that everyone would desire to cultivate it, but it can't be called invasive.