Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas)

Family: Convolvulaceae | Edibility: Choice Edible (5/5)

Main Bloom Time: Late summer, Mid summer. Form: Spreading or horizontal.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Leaves, Roots/Tubers

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Fall, Late Summer, Spring, Winter

Flavor & Culinary Uses

Sweet and fleshy, it is a delicious staple food and is also very nutritious providing a rich source of vitamins and minerals. — Sweet and fleshy, it is a delicious staple food and is also very nutritious providing a rich source of vitamins and minerals.; There are cultivars with soft, moist flesh and also forms with a more dry flesh.; There are also less sweet cultivars, bred for industrial production of starch.; In order for the roots to store through the winter, they need to be cured in the sunshine at temperatures around 25°c fr about a week before being stored at around 14°c.

Habitat & North American Range

Derived in cultivation, probably from Ipomoea trifida, this species is not known in a truly wild situation. (Zone 10)