Researchers have uncovered the mystery origins of sweet potato thanks to the discovery of its closest wild relative.

The origins of one of the world’s most important stable crops has puzzled experts for a long time.

After years of research, a team from Oxford University, concluded the discovery of a new species from Ecuador called Ipomoea aequatoriensis.

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Team leader, Professor Robert Scotland said: “How the sweet potato evolved has always been a mystery.

"Now, we have found this new species in Ecuador that is the closest wild relative of sweet potato known to date and is a fundamental piece of the puzzle to understand the origin and evolution of this top-ten global food crop.”

According to the Oxford team, the sweet potato could have arrived in the Pacific islands by natural means and before people, challenging popular ideas about the arrival of humans in some locations.

Graduate researcher and joint first author, Tom Wells said: “The search for the ancestor of sweet potato has been going on for almost a century...but we have been able to definitively identify it. This will enable a better understanding of sweet potato’s origin and contemporary diversity.”

This new species is the latest in a series of discoveries by the Oxford team and collaborators at USDA and the International Potato Centre Peru, and one that represents an ‘extraordinary discovery in untangling the evolution’ of the plant.

Research was funded by the UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

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