Sweet potatoes and yams are NOT the same thing! Not only do they look and taste different, they are also botanically different.
What's the difference?? We explain...
Sweet potatoes belong to the morning glory family of plants, called the Convolvulaceae family.
Yams belong to a different family, called Dioscoreaceae.
Sweet potatoes usually have smooth, orange, thin skin.
Yams have rough, brown, scaly skin.
Sweet potatoes have orange, white, or purple flesh.
Yams have white flesh.
Sweet potatoes are short and blocky with tapered ends.
Yams are longer and more cylindrical with protruding flesh that some call “toes.”
The edible parts of sweet potatoes are called roots.
Yams are classified as tubers.
Sweet potatoes are moist and sweet.
Yams are dry and starchy.
Sweet potato plants are more prolific, producing 4-10 roots per plant. Yams produce just 1-5 tubers per plant.
Sweet potatoes are grown in the U.S. (In fact, the Sweet Potato Capital of the World is in Vardaman, MS.)Yams are commonly grown in Africa, South America, and Central America.
Both are very nutritious, providing a variety of vitamins and minerals!
Although you can find canned potatoes that are marketed as yams, you’ll notice that they are also labeled as sweet potatoes and the first ingredient is sweet potatoes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires this dual labeling when sweet potatoes are labeled as yams.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up