In order to widen the application of the root-derived starches in South China, the pasting, rheology and gel characteristics of different kinds of root-derived starche form yam and taro were investigated in this study. It turned out that the rheological and gel properties of starch were significantly different, while the differences among different varieties were relatively small. The pasting temperature of all kinds of starch ranged from 69.77 ℃ to 84.37 ℃，but the pasting temperature and peak time of yam and taro starch was higher than that of tapioca starch. The loss of tapioca starch was higher than those of yam and taro starch. The elasticity modulus G′ and viscosity modulus G″ of the seven kinds of root-deroved starchincreased with the increase of frequency, and the loss tangent angle (tanδ) was less than 1, showing a typical weak gel dynamic rheological pattern. The gel strength, hardness and gumminess of taro and tapioca starch were similar, and were lower than those of yam starch. The springiness and cohesiveness of tapioca starch gel were higher than those of yam and taro starch. The wide variability in pasting rheological and gel properties could be useful in different applications of tuber starch.