The sweet potato is a tropical American plant of the morning glory family Although the tubers of the sweet potato are similar to those of the common potato, the two plants are from different families
Sweet potatoes are vegetables that look like large ordinary potatoes but taste sweet. They have pinkish-brown skins and yellow flesh. Food plant (Ipomoea batatas; family Convolvulaceae) native to tropical America and widely cultivated in tropical and warm temperate climates. Botanically unrelated to the white, or Irish, potato or the yam, sweet potatoes are oblong or pointed oval, tuberous roots. Skin colour ranges from light buff to brown to purplish red; the pulp may be white (highest in starch) to orange (also high in carotene) to purple. Long, trailing plant stems bear funnel-shaped flowers tinged with pink or rose violet. Sweet potatoes are served baked or mashed and used as pie filling
There are many varieties of sweet potato, which are in-appropriately called (and labeled) "yams," which they are not True yams are unrelated to sweet potatoes
edible tuberous root of the sweet potato vine grown widely in warm regions of the United States pantropical vine widely cultivated in several varieties for its large sweet tuberous root with orange flesh the fleshy root of the sweet potato vine
Contrary to popular belief, the sweet potato is different from the yam Sweet potatoes are bright with orange flesh, though some varieties have yellow, white, or even purple flesh