Right, but I read the articles and was still confused. But I think I’ve figured it out:
There are three plants in question:
1. Sweet Potatoes (yellow)
2. Sweet Potatoes (orange, which we call “Yams” in the US)
3. Yams (the real deal, which look something like orange sweet potatoes, but which you can’t normally buy at the grocery store in the US)
So when you’re at the grocery store, you’re buying sweet potatoes, even if the sign says “Yams.” In the US, “Yams” are a certain variety of sweet potatoes.
I think that’s a reasonably complex distinction, and the wikipedia entry doesn’t clarify the issue quite as well as it could. It’s a research question, but not a simple Google search (unless you really know what you’re looking for and are prepared to do some reading up on yams).
There are lots of questions that could be answered if the asker researched the topic. But simply asking, rather than doing the primary research, is part of the purpose of Fluther. (The other purpose of Fluther is to get answers to questions that can’t be researched, but both purposes seem very reasonable.)
I get annoyed by dumb questions as often as anyone else. But I like this one.
Can someone tell me if I’m right about the yams?