Vegetable
Ipomoea batatas
S tier
Ipomoea batatas is the cultivated sweet potato—a tropical morning-glory grown for swollen storage roots that range from dry white flesh to moist deep orange and dense purple. Unlike true yams (Dioscorea), sweet potatoes form on fibrous root systems and carry soft edible skins when young. Global production centres include China, sub-Saharan Africa, and the southeastern United States, each favouring different dry-matter and colour types. Bake, mash, fry, or steam according to flesh moisture: orange moist types mash easily; dry Japanese and white types hold cubes in stews. Leaves and young shoots are edible greens in many Asian and African cuisines. Curing after harvest sweetens starch to sugar and toughens skins for storage—skip curing and roots taste starchy and bruise more easily.
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History
Andean and Central American peoples domesticated Ipomoea batatas long before European contact.
Columbian exchange carried sweet potato across the Pacific and Atlantic into Asia and Africa.
Southeastern North American agriculture made sweet potato a staple starch crop.
Orange-fleshed biofortified types expanded for vitamin A programmes in Africa and Asia.