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The first is 'an edible tropical tuber (Ipomoea batatas) with pinkish orange, slightly sweet flesh' and the second is 'the potato (Solanum tuberosum) that tastes sweet'?
If only the first is right, then how do you say when you describe 'the potato that tastes sweet'?
Potatoes don't normally taste sweet. "Sweet potato" means "the tuber with pinkish-orange flesh", except when it very obviously doesn't.
So this is not a real problem. It is unreal, in the sense that while there is ambiguity between the compound word "sweet potato" and the adjective-noun construction "sweet potato" it never occurs, simply because potatoes are not naturally sweet.
In the rare situations that one does have a potato that is sweet, you can say:
This is a sweet potato!
And allow the fact that you are eating a potato to resolve the ambiguity.
Or you can say:
This potato is sweet.
Which is not ambiguous at all.
But remember this isn't a problem. Just say "sweet potato" and the context will naturally resolve the ambiguity in any realistic situation.
In the same way there is no problem with the compound word "dry cleaner" (nobody thinks you mean a person who cleans and isn't wet) or "greenhouse"/"green house" "redhead"/"red head" - very similar in speech, but again it never causes an actual problem
In speech, they would be distinguished by stress: "a SWEET potato" for the compound with the special meaning, and "a sweet POTATO" for a potato that happens to be sweet.
Having grown up in the southeast United States on "sweet potatoes", the only definition I have ever heard is the pinkish orange tuber. Compared to a typical white potato, the orange potato has a slightly sweet taste to me. In the southeast US, cooks will add lots of butter and cinnamon sugar to the sweet potatoes. Never (to my knowledge) will cooks add sugar to white potatoes. Where I grew up, the words "sweet potatoes" and "yams" were synonyms. I learned later in life that some people use the words differently. And, I have never heard the term "sweet potato" used to describe the actual taste of the potato.
There are two common varieties of sweet potato: one is white and the other is orange. There are also other colors of sweet potato.
Regardless of the color the name of this sweet potato is: Ipomoea batatas
Ipomoea batatas, commonly called sweet potato or sweet potato vine, is native to tropical America. It is a tuberous rooted tender perennial that has been cultivated for its orange-fleshed edible tubers for over 2000 years. It was reportedly brought back to Europe from the New World by Columbus. Today, the sweet potato is a popular root vegetable that is grown in vegetable gardens and as a commercial food crop throughout the world.
Although species plants and varieties grown as food crops have somewhat attractive green foliage, it is the more recently introduced purple-, chartreuse- and variegated-leaved cultivars that have transformed this vegetable into a popular ornamental foliage plant.
The OTHER ONE is: Solanum tuberosum
AKA The IRISH POTATO Solanum tuberosum is commonly known in Canada as Irish potato, potato, white potato, yellow potato, red potato, and pomme de terre ( USDA - ARS 2014).May 24, 2015. [THESE ARE NOT KNOWN AS "SWEET POTATOES"
The white SWEET ones are hard to find in northern countries, sometimes.
To distinguish them in a northern hemisphere country, you can say: white sweet potato because generally just sweet potato is the orange one in the north, also known as yam. And you don't need to say: orange sweet potato. I'll repeat that: In North America, yams are called sweet potatoes. So, to refer to the others, you have to say: white sweet potato, purple sweet potato, etc.
If you are in Brazil, on the other hand, you just say: batata doce, which is the white or purplish kind because there no one knows the orange kind (generally speaking). Here are the purple and white sweet potatoes eaten in Brazil. Please note: Traditionally, the white one is more popular than the purplish one.
Here is an entire article on this subject:
