You can mark you interesting snippets of text that will be available through a unique link in your browser.


sweet potato

Translation
sweet potato
1. a plant, Ipomoea batatas, of the morning glory family, grown for its sweet, edible, tuberous roots.
2. the root itself, used as a vegetable.
3. Informal. ocarina.
[1740-50, Amer.]

* * *

Food plant (Ipomoea batatas; family Convolvulaceae) native to tropical America and widely cultivated in tropical and warm temperate climates.

Botanically unrelated to the white, or Irish, potato or the yam, sweet potatoes are oblong or pointed oval, tuberous roots. Skin colour ranges from light buff to brown to purplish red; the pulp may be white (highest in starch) to orange (also high in carotene) to purple. Long, trailing plant stems bear funnel-shaped flowers tinged with pink or rose violet. Sweet potatoes are served baked or mashed and used as pie filling.

* * *

▪ plant
 (Ipomoea batatas), food plant of the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), native to tropical America and widely cultivated in tropical and the warmer temperate climates. The sweet potato must not be confused with the common, white, or Irish potato (see potato; genus Solanum, family Solanaceae) or with the yam (q.v.; genus Dioscorea, family Dioscoreaceae), to which it is botanically unrelated. Sweet potato stems are usually long and trailing and bear lobed or unlobed leaves that vary in shape. The flowers, borne in clusters in the axils of the leaves, are funnel shaped and tinged with pink or rose violet. The edible part is the much-enlarged tuberous root, varying in shape from fusiform to oblong or pointed oval. Root colours range from white to orange, and occasionally purple inside, and from light buff to brown or rose and purplish red outside. The pulp consists largely of starch, and orange-fleshed varieties are high in carotene. Sweet potatoes are served as a cooked vegetable, in whole or mashed form, and are used as pie filling.

      The sweet potato is now widely grown chiefly in the southern United States, in tropical America, the warmer islands of the Pacific, Japan, and Russia. Propagated vegetatively by sprouts arising from the roots or by cuttings of the vines, it is best adapted to light, friable soils such as sandy loams. At least four to five months of warm weather are required for large yields. In Japan the crop has long been grown for drying and for manufacture of starch and alcohol.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

  
Share  

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Sweet potato — Potato Po*ta to, n.; pl. {Potatoes}. [Sp. patata potato, batata sweet potato, from the native American name (probably batata) in Hayti.] (Bot.) (a) A plant ({Solanum tuberosum}) of the Nightshade family, and its esculent farinaceous tuber, of… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Sweet potato — Sweet Sweet, a. [Compar. {Sweeter}; superl. {Sweetest}.] [OE. swete, swote, sote, AS. sw[=e]te; akin to OFries. sw[=e]te, OS. sw[=o]ti, D. zoet, G. s[ u]ss, OHG. suozi, Icel. s[ae]tr, s[oe]tr, Sw. s[ o]t, Dan. s[ o]d, Goth. suts, L. suavis, for… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • sweet potato — 1> батат, сладкий картофель (Ipomoea batatas) …   Новый большой англо-русский словарь

  • Sweet potato — Camote redirects here. For the island group in the Philippines, see Camotes Islands. Sweet Potato Sweet potato in flower Hemingway, South Carolina Scientific classification …   Wikipedia

  • Sweet potato — Süßkartoffel Süßkartoffel (Ipomoea batatas), Blüte und Laubblätter. Systematik Klasse: Dreifurchenpollen Z …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • sweet potato — noun Date: 1750 1. a tropical vine (Ipomoea batatas) of the morning glory family with variously shaped leaves and purplish flowers; also its large thick sweet and nutritious tuberous root that is cooked and eaten as a vegetable compare yam 2 2.… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • sweet potato — батат, сладкий картофель (Ipomoea batatas) …   Большой англо-русский и русско-английский словарь

  • sweet potato — noun a) A tropical perennial American vine, Ipomoea batatas, having a fleshy tuber. b) The tuber of this plant cooked as a vegetable. Syn: batata, Ipomoea, yam …   Wiktionary

  • sweet potato — [ˌswiːtpə teɪtəʊ] 1) Ботаника: батат, сладкий картофель (Ipomoea batatas) 2) Сленг: глиняная дудочка муз, окарина 3) Макаров: батат (Ipomoea batatas) …   Универсальный англо-русский словарь

  • wild sweet potato — man of the earth. [1890 95, Amer.] * * * …   Universalium

Фильмы