Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine Flower

Sweet potato vine ipomoea batatas named for its edible cousin is an ornamental warm season annual grown for its attractive leaves and vining habit.

Ornamental sweet potato vine flower.

This heat loving perennial will die back if the plant experiences hard freezes below 32 degrees fahrenheit 0 c. That means the tubers it forms are actually edible. Ornamental sweet potato vine ipomoea batatas is valued for its colorful foliage and rapid easy care growth habits. Ipomoea butatas or sweet potato vine thrives in hot tropical climates and is an ornamental foliage plant often used as a foil for flowering displays.

While the ornamental sweet potato plants don t often flower when blackie does it produces lavender or purple trumpet like flowers. Popular varieties like marguerite have small round tubers while varieties like blackie have longer narrower tubers. The foliage lends a tropical feel to the garden and comes in a range of colors and varying forms. Often grown in container gardens for its trailing stems of purple chartreuse or variegated foliage ornamental sweet potato vine is actually related to the sweet potatoes you d grow in your vegetable garden.

Although the plant works well as a ground cover it is especially effective.