Category:Sweet potato Variations
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One of the most versatile vegetables you can come across is the sweet potato. Its variations make it an interesting vegetable that has a long trail of history to it. Like several vegetables that were planted in far off locations by travelers and conquerors, variations of the sweet potato managed to find their way to different locations. Of course, it is the people living in these areas that were fortunate enough to receive this vegetable.
Generally, there are two types of sweet potatoes: One is moist and the other is dry. The moist sweet potato is known to be the orange-fleshed one while the dry sweet potato is known to be the yellow-fleshed one.
The variations of the orange-fleshed sweet potato are well known in the United States markets. However, there are many people who prefer the yellow-fleshed sweet potato, which is the starchier kind.
The orange-fleshed or moist-fleshed sweet potatoes are sometimes known as yams, but the real yam is quite large, and may be as heavy as a hundred pounds. Yams are actually from Africa, but commonly some variations of the sweet potato is called a yam.
The Ipomoea batatas, a sweet potato, is also an American native plant. Christopher Columbus and his crew discovered this type of variation. However, the exact location where this variation of sweet potato was discovered is not traceable, as there is no accurate record of it.
‘Axi’ was another name by which the sweet potato was known near the coastal region of Yucatan and Honduras. Among the natives in this region, the sweet potato was also known as batatas or betatas. As far back as 1514, the sweet potato had 9 known varieties. In Spain alone, the sweet potato was cultivated and more variations of this vegetable were grown. Some of these variations of the sweet potato included purple, red, and pale or white ones.
The reason for the different variations produced was due to the fact that the soil, climatic conditions and other important factors varied. When the sweet potato was taken to different regions, new variations became possible because of the different conditions this vegetable was grown under. However, it appears that the sweet potato did not grow well in some locations. For example, it could not be grown in Belgium when attempted in 1576. John Gerarde claimed to have also grown sweet potatoes in England, and that they were known in warmer climatic areas such as India. The accuracy of this cannot be guaranteed. Also, explorers from Spain had transported sweet potatoes to other locations from where the sweet potato was taken to places like China, India, and Malaya.
In view of the amount of attention the sweet potato received in its earlier days recorded, it cannot be denied that the sweet potato was an important vegetable no matter what its variations were. Whether the sweet potatoes were fleshy or had various colors of skin, they were considered to be important variations.
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