The giant potato is a type of morning glory

Morning glory

Morning glory is a common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose current taxonomy and systematics is in flux...

 plant. Like the sweet potato

Sweet potato

The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...

, it belongs to the Ipomoea

Ipomoea

Ipomoea is the largest genus in the flowering plant family Convolvulaceae, with over 500 species. Most of these are called "morning glories", but this can refer to related genera also. Those formerly separated in Calonyction are called "moonflowers"...

genus. It grows as a vine.

Its origins are uncertain, but it has been recorded in West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

 including in Gambiahttp://www.darwingambia.gm/Checklist3.pdf and riparian forest

Riparian forest

A riparian forest is a forested area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir. -Etymology:...

s of Benin

Benin

Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...

http://library.wur.nl/wda/dissertations/dis3493.pdf, as well as Australia's Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

. It is naturalised in many parts of the world including Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

http://tai2.ntu.edu.tw/udth/bin/fotpic.exe?PicID=4-0366 and Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 (where it is called Likam).

There have been specimens collected or observations from: Australia; Belize; Benin; Brunei; Cambodia; Cameroon; China; Colombia; DRC

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

; Costa Rica; Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...

; Ecuador; Equatorial Guinea; Gabon; Ghana; Guinea; Honduras; Indonesia; Laos; Liberia; Madagascar; Mauritius; Micronesia, Federated States of; Myanmar; New Caledonia; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Senegal; Sudan; Tanzania; Thailand; Togo; Venezuela.http://www.asia.gbif.net/portal/ecat_browser.jsp?taxonKey=550474

External links and references

• Ipomoea mauritiana, USDA plant database.
• Ipomoea mauritiana, gardentia.net
• Burmese Indigenous Medicinal Plants (also lists further synonyms)