Sweet Potato Vine Identification

Shape

• The shape of the leaves on an ornamental sweet potato vine usually resemble a heart or are what botanists term "palmately lobed." These palmate leaves have as many as five sections joined at a central point near their base, but spread out in the same manner as fingers on a hand.

Features

• The normal sweet potato vine species possesses green leaves. Those developed as ornamentals depend on the color of their foliage for their attractiveness. The colors on these range from bright green to shades of purple or chartreuse. Ornamental sweet potato vines usually do not flower.

Types

• The leaves of the Margarita cultivar of sweet potato vine are chartreuse, but Blackie is an ornamental hybrid with leaves that are such a dark shade of purple, they appear almost black. Tricolor is a variegated cultivar; the foliage is a pale green shade, but with white and pink mixed in, especially on the edges of the leaf.