Ornamental sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batata) make an excellent addition to any garden. They do well in traditional flowerbeds and landscaping, and are wonderful container plants. They can also be kept as house plants.
Both ornamental and traditional food crop sweet potatoes are edible; however, the tubers of the ornamental plant are small, tough and not at all tasty. Another difference is that ornamental sweet potatoes bear abundant foliage in an array of dazzling colors; whereas the foliage of the food plant is attractive and abundant but only comes in bright green. Both types of sweet potato plant produce trumpet-shaped lavender or pink flowers; however, these are not large or showy. On the ornamental variety of plant they may be entirely obscured by the large, colorful leaves.
