potato?

after some discussion on friday
vy, alex, ann, angela and i had no idea if sweet potatoes, yams and taros
were under the category of potatoes
so after finishing my homework i began to reaserch!
and after researching potatoes, it kinda confused me more than it did
see i thought that taros were yams.. (since taro flavoured things are purple)
like how papayas are paw paw (according to my paw paw ointment, yes they are the same thing!)

anyways sweet potatoes, yams and taros are NOT the same thing!
they dont even go under the same sub catogory of potatoes
they go under a category of "root vegetables"
and then under that they go under separate categories

some root vegetable families
tuberous root- sweet potato, turnip
corm- taro, chinese water chestnut
rhizome- ginger, ginseng, tumeric
tuber- yam, potato

so techniquely the closest thing to a potato is the yam
but wikipedia admits that most people confuse yams with sweet potato
so if youve got these two confused, its completely normal !

and after looking at pics of taro,
most of the insides are white..
so then why are taro flavoured things purple?
so now im wondering.. have asians confused taro with yams ? hrms..













images in chronological order are yams, taro and sweet potato.