A Sweet Potato is Not a Yam
Contrary to popular belief and grocery store labeling, sweet potatoes and yams are NOT the same thing. They are not even in the same plant family! They are both tuberous root vegetables that come from a flowering plant, but they are not related at all and don’t actually have much in common.
THE DIFFERENCE
Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas)
The sweet potatoes we know and love that are sold commercially here are mainly just a couple varieties. The most common has a copper skin with an orange flesh that is sweet and soft (varieties like Jewel, Beauregard and Garnet). The other has a golden or reddish purple skin with creamy white flesh (varieties like Haymon, O’Henry and Japanese). These types are less widely available, at least here in East Tennessee.
Americans have been calling the orange-fleshed variety of sweet potatoes “yams” since colonial times when Africans saw similarities to their native yams. The USDA decided to label them as “yams” to differentiate the two varieties.
Yams (family Dioscoreaceae) are native to Africa and Asia and other tropical regions. They are starchy tubers that have an almost black bark-like skin and white, purple or reddish flesh and come in many varieties. The tubers can be as small as regular potatoes or grow upwards of five feet long!
Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires sweet potatoes labeled with the term “yam” to be accompanied by the term “sweet potato.”
DID YOU KNOW?
The sweet potato is also only distantly related to the true potato (Solanum tuberosum). But more on that another time…
MY THOUGHTS
Honestly I love the brevity of the word yam. Just one strong syllable. But alas, words have meanings, and it is just not the same thing as a sweet potato. Perhaps in the future I will try to lobby the USDA to help fix this perpetrated misconception. I’ve never actually eaten a yam before and plan to try it in the future. Supposedly you can find them at international food markets.
AN EASY WAY TO REMEMBER:
If you find yourself in the store and not knowing if what you’re buying is a yam or a sweet potato, sing yourself this little tune:
If you’re looking for a sweet potato
Go to where you shop…
It may be labeled as a yam,
But it’s probably not.
If you’re in the USA
And shopping for a Sweet Potay
The store might label it a “yam”
But yams are probably far away.