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Are Sweet Potatoes Truly Potatoes?
 BECOME A KITCHEN BOTANIST: Are Sweet Potatoes truly potatoes?
Despite its name, the sweet potato is quite different from the white or Irish potato.
The common white potato is an underground stem or tuber, while the sweet potato is a proper root. The two potatoes are in unrelated families, with the white potato belonging to the nightshade family, which claims tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. The sweet potato is in the morning glory family, and its trailing stems have flowers very similar to its near relative the common morning glory.
The white potato is a native of South America, and the sweet potato is thought to be as well. But still, how did two such different plants end up both being called potatoes?
It is a tangled tale. Potato is derived from the Spanish patata, which was derived from batatas which is a word in the Taino language. Both potatoes got their scientific names from the great Swedish botanist, Linnaeus. He named the sweet potato Ipomoea batatas and the white potato Solanum tuberosum. So the sweet potato ended up with its Pre-European name.
Both potatoes are nutritious, but the sweet potato is the winner. It has fewer calories, more protein, calcium, and vitamin C than the white potato, and it tastes better without salt.
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