White sweet potatoes are native to South and Central America.
The white sweet potato is a tuber that is used as an important source of starch in many parts of the world. Although they are called potatoes, they are not closely related to true potatoes, but they do belong to the same genus as morning glory. There are many varieties of sweet potato and also many varieties of white sweet potato. This name, white sweet potato, is used to describe the color of the skin and flesh of various breeds of sweet potato.
Nutritionally, the lighter colored sweet potato, like the white sweet potato, has more starch than its darker orange, red, or purple color. They have less vitamin A and fewer carotenoids than brightly colored sweet potatoes and are often less sweet. Almost all sweet potatoes are classified as Ipomoea batatas, despite the many differences in the varieties of sweet potatoes that are grown. Most other plants in this genus are toxic.
The tuber, or thickened root, is the part of the white sweet potato that is grown for use as a food source. The small shoots and buds are also edible, but are rarely eaten outside the tropics and subtropics where these plants flourish. When dug up and separated from the rest of the plant, white sweet potato tubers remain at room temperature for several months, making them an important crop in the winter months when fewer vegetables can grow.
Although they were more popular, the white sweet potato lost popularity to the orange sweet potato in many parts of the world. Sweet potatoes with more carotenoids tend to be sweeter and softer, qualities that make them desirable for cooking. In many cases, these orange sweet potatoes are called yams, even though they have nothing to do with real yams. Although the white sweet potato is less popular than the orange, it is still widely available almost all over the world.
White sweet potatoes are native to South and Central America. They are now grown throughout the world, although they require soil temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (21.1 and 26.7 degrees Celsius) to thrive, making them best suited to tropical or subtropical climates. While these plants can be grown from seed, they are most often grown from seedlings, which are pieces of the root of a mature plant.