Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato, common name applied to a perennial, trailing herb of the morning glory family. The plant, which is native to tropical America, is cultivated on sandy or loamy soils throughout many warm regions of the world, and exists as an important food staple in the southern United States. It is planted primarily for its thick, edible roots, called sweet potatoes. Two main types are commonly cultivated: a dry, mealy type, and a soft, light-to-deep-yellow, moist-fleshed type. The species often called wild sweet-potato vine, manroot, or man-of-the-earth is not edible, but it is frequently cultivated as an ornamental vine in the eastern United States.

The sweet potato yields an important starch, which is used commercially for sizing textiles and papers, for the manufacture of adhesives, and in laundries. In the United States, large quantities of sweet potatoes, either freshly harvested or shredded and dried, are used as feed for livestock. See also Yam.

Scientific classification: The sweet potato belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. It is classified as Ipomoea batatas. The species called wild sweet-potato vine, manroot, or man-of-the-earth is classified as Ipomoea pandurata.