Sweet Potato

sweet potato, (Ipomoea batatas), food plant of the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), native to tropical America. The sweet potato is widely cultivated in tropical and warm temperate climates and is an important food crop in the southern United States, tropical America and the Caribbean, the warmer islands of the Pacific, Japan, and parts of Russia. The fleshy roots are served as a cooked vegetable, in whole or mashed form, and are used as pie filling. In Japan the crop has long been grown for drying and for manufacture of starch and alcohol.