Jamaican Sweet Potatoes or a Yam?

I have a plant I received from a Jamaican friend who called this a sweet potato. The Scroogle lens says it is a Dioscorea Trifida. The flesh is white. I haven't grown enough to harvest yet. Have 5 propagated so maybe next year I can eat some.
Does anyone have any knowledge of such a plant?

When you cut the root crop/yam is it a bit "wet-slimy" aka Dioscorea or is it dry like regular sweet potato. You can also cook it and see if it is sweet or not.

It can be confusing at times because the word yam/potatoes can mean any of the following:
Dioscorea (Chinese yam)
sweet potatoes (think thankgiving candy yam)
Irish Potatoes (in the tomatoe/pepper family, used to make fast food "French Fries)
elephant ear ( also called dasheen/cocoyam/etc)

And all of thes comes in different sking color and flesh color.

But to give you a short answer: The feeder roots and the smoothness of the tuber is making me think regular sweet potatoes. Dioscorea usually has a tuber that is more bark-like.  Sweet potatoes will root when the vine touches the ground but Dioscorea normally doesn't root. Also Dioscorea will naturally climb 15-40ft up a tree while sweet potatoes prefer to stay on the ground and root at every node.  

Can you send some more picture of the vine itself.

the growing tip of the vine makes me think sweet potato rather than yam as well.

looks a lot like an "ornamental" sweet potato that my neighbor has.
not really ornamental, because it makes roots (which are yummy), but the leaves are funkier. Maybe it is better to call it a "decorative" sweet potato...

I thought the diascorias, even the trifidas, have a bit more roundness to the leaf. usually they're heart shaped but we see the trifidas growing wild around here and they're almost lobular, not pointy.

S Bengi wrote:When you cut the root crop/yam is it a bit "wet-slimy" aka Dioscorea or is it dry like regular sweet potato. You can also cook it and see if it is sweet or not.

It can be confusing at times because the word yam/potatoes can mean any of the following:
Dioscorea (Chinese yam)
sweet potatoes (think thankgiving candy yam)
Irish Potatoes (in the tomatoe/pepper family, used to make fast food "French Fries)
elephant ear ( also called dasheen/cocoyam/etc)

And all of thes comes in different sking color and flesh color.

But to give you a short answer: The feeder roots and the smoothness of the tuber is making me think regular sweet potatoes. Dioscorea usually has a tuber that is more bark-like.  Sweet potatoes will root when the vine touches the ground but Dioscorea normally doesn't root. Also Dioscorea will naturally climb 15-40ft up a tree while sweet potatoes prefer to stay on the ground and root at every node.  

The vine touched the ground and rooted. I don't see any tendrils on it.

Vine

Anyother vine picture closer.

Tereza Okava wrote:looks a lot like an "ornamental" sweet potato that my neighbor has.
not really ornamental, because it makes roots (which are yummy), but the leaves are funkier. Maybe it is better to call it a "decorative" sweet potato...

I thought the diascorias, even the trifidas, have a bit more roundness to the leaf. usually they're heart shaped but we see the trifidas growing wild around here and they're almost lobular, not pointy.

The leaves seem to have many variations.
got image from this publication.
https://dokumen.pub/tropical-root-and-tuber-crops-cassava-sweet-potato-yams-and-aroids-agriculture-1nbsped-1845934245-9781845934248.html

definitely sweet potato. true yams are twining vines and that’s not giving any indication of trying to twine. leaf shape doesn’t need to come into it, it just doesn’t have a dioscorea attitude.

It's 100% sweet potatoe.

S Bengi wrote:It's 100% sweet potatoe.

greg mosser wrote:definitely sweet potato. true yams are twining vines and that’s not giving any indication of trying to twine. leaf shape doesn’t need to come into it, it just doesn’t have a dioscorea attitude.

Thank you, guys. Can't trust the Scroogle corp.