Potato

The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family,

commonly grown for its starchy tuber. Potatoes are the world's most widely grown tuber crop, and is

the fourth largest crop in terms of fresh produce (after rice, wheat, and maize), but this ranking

is inflated due to the high water content of fresh potatoes relative to that of other crops. The

potato originated in the Andes, likely somewhere in present-day Peru or Bolivia. Potatoes form an

important part of Andean culture, and the farmers grow many different varieties possessing a

remarkable diversity of colors and shapes.

Potato plants have a low-growing habit and bear white to purple flowers with yellow stamens.

Buds called "eyes" appear on the surface of potato tubers. Since common varieties of potatoes do

not produce seeds (they bear sterile flowers), propagation occurs by planting pieces of existing

tubers, cut to include at least one eye. Confusingly, these pieces can bear the name "seed

potatoes". The haulm or shaw of the potato plant may wither if early harvesting does not occur.

After potato plants flower, some varieties will produce small green fruit that look similar

to green cherry-tomatoes. These produce seeds like other fruits. Insects can cross-pollinate the

flowers of different potato plants. Each of the fruits can contain up to 300 true seeds. One can

separate the seeds from the fruits by putting them in a blender on a slow speed with some water,

then leaving them in water for a day so that the seeds will sink and the rest of the fruit will

float. Potato fruit contains poisonous substances: one should not eat them. However, some

horticulturists sell chimeras made by grafting a tomato plant onto a potato plant, which can

produce both edible tomatoes and potatoes. These chimera plants are more commonly known as "the

Miraculous Tuber-Plant".

Potatoes grow best in cool climates with good rainfall or irrigation such as in western

Europe. But they are also widely grown in the subtropical lowlands of the Indo-Gangetic plains of

India (as a winter crop) and in the highlands of southwest China (for example, Sichuan and Yunnan

province) and in equatorial highlands of Java.

The Quechua word for potato is papa. In the 16th century, the potato was introduced to Spain

(the first record is from Sevilla, around the year 1570) and from there to the rest of Europe, North

America, Africa and Asia. The name "potato" comes from the Spanish word batata, meaning sweet

potato, Ipomoea batatas. The sweet potato had arrived much earlier; Christopher Columbus himself

had brought it back from the Caribbean. The potato has only a very distant relationship with the

sweet potato, but because the edible part of both crops is an underground organ (a root in the case

of the sweet potato), they have often been confused.