Yams or sweet potatoes

Hi, does anyone know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? Alda

http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/sweetpotatodiff.htm

Yep. Yam is an African vegetable and is more "starchy", fibrous, and less sweet. Sweet potatoes are grown in the US, with the Vardaman being the variety that most other varieties are judged against. I personally have never seen (raw) yams for sell. I only see them canned.

Sweet potato & yam.
Muskmelon & cantaloupe.

Why do the super markets mislabel these items ?

All this talk about labeling GMO's & they can't get it right on these simply vegetables.

Muskmelons are grown in the USA, as are sweet potatoes. Yams are grown in Africa, cantaloupe is a European vegetable that nobody here would eat.

Found this on the web.

Why the confusion?
In the United States, firm varieties of sweet potatoes were produced before soft varieties. When soft varieties were first grown commercially, there was a need to differentiate between the two. African slaves had already been calling the ‘soft’ sweet potatoes ‘yams’ because they resembled the yams in Africa. Thus, ‘soft’ sweet potatoes were referred to as ‘yams’ to distinguish them from the ‘firm’ varieties.

Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires labels with the term ‘yam’ to be accompanied by the term ‘sweet potato.’ Unless you specifically search for yams, which are usually found in an international market, you are probably eating sweet potatoes!

From what I read on the link, yams are sweeter than sweet potatoes. I thought differently but I appear to be wrong. I know those canned yams have lots of sweet syrup added and I guess I just assumed that the syrup was added because of the lack of natural sweetness.

Ken

Yams and sweet potatoes belong to two different plant families, one of which also includes morning glories.

Yep, not even in the same plant family.

Ken

Canned Yams are Sweet Potatoes.

OK. I thought since it said "Yams",..... oh well. It is kind of like staghorn fern and elkhorn fern. Years ago, some of the growers/sellers of staghorn ferns labeled them "Elkhorn Ferns". That name (though incorrect) is now used interchangeably. Staghorns and elkhorns are not of the same plant family. In fact, the staghorn is an epiphyte and the Elkhorn a terrestrial.

I know more about staghorns and elkhorns than I do about yams!...........LOL

Ken

Well, I doubt many folks know the difference. The old timers did, more so than the younger generation. :)

Thats why 'common names' are misleading and everchanging, We know what we look for by any name, but it doesn't help someone read our minds! Chuckl

You might not know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes where you grew up but I grew up in S. Florida and the neighboring islands where yams were a regular partf the diet/crop. Yams are a major food crop in many parts of the world with hundreds of varieties. Doubtful the same is true of sweet potatoes. We Americans sometimes lean to Colonial mentallity but the yam moniker came with the slaves.

Yep, we know what we're taught.