Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), like yams, are loved in Nigeria. Unlike yams though, they are not indigenous; and despite having potato in their name, they are unrelated to the true potato. Sweet potatoes were introduced to Nigeria by the Portuguese in the late 1600s. Today, the white-fleshed variety, with purple or beige skins, has taken root and now features in the top ten of cultivated roots and tubers in Nigeria, up there with cassava, yam and potatoes.
Outside of Nigeria, particularly in North America, other sweet potatoes exist, from Okinawan purple-fleshed ones to the orange-fleshed varieties popular in North America. In fact, in many parts of the world, sweet potatoes are often mislabelled as yams, particularly where true yams are not well known.
