Solanum tuberosum L.

The Useful Plants of Boyacá project

Ecology

Alt. 2000 - 3600 m.

Distribution

Cultivated in Colombia.

Morphology General Habit

Herb.

Kew Species Profiles

General Description

Potato is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), which also includes tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), aubergine or eggplant (S. melongena), chilli pepper (Capsicum annuum) and petunias (Petunia species).

Considered to be the fourth most important food crop (after wheat, maize and rice), potato is cultivated in temperate and subtropical regions across the world.

Species Profile

Geography and distribution

Solanum tuberosum is thought to have originated in the Andes of South America. It was probably first domesticated in the Lake Titicaca region of Peru and Bolivia between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago.

It is widespread in cultivation, with major producers including China, Russia, Poland, the USA, Ukraine, Germany and India.

Overview: An erect, perennial, aromatic herb up to 1 m tall. Sparsely hairy, with tuber-bearing underground stolons (vegetative shoots). Stems erect, succulent, winged, branching.

Leaves: Divided into 3-5 pairs of leaflets.

Flowers: White to pink, purple or blue, about 2.5 cm in diameter with yellow anthers. Borne in a many-flowered, axillary inflorescence. Each flower is borne on a flower stalk (pedicel) 2-3 cm long.

Fruits: A succulent (but inedible), spherical, yellow-green to purple berry, up to 4 cm in diameter.

Thousands of cultivars are available, which vary in characters such as tuber size, shape and skin colour.

Uses

Potatoes are a major staple and have a prominent place in many national cuisines. They are an almost complete foodstuff, providing all the essential nutrients, with the exception of calcium and vitamins A and D (which can be obtained by consuming them with milk).

Potatoes are a good source of carbohydrate and vitamin C and provide about 25% of the vitamin C in the European diet.

The diverse and adaptable tubers are boiled, roasted, baked, fried and steamed as a vegetable. Potatoes are a key ingredient in many soups, stews, pies and other oven-baked dishes.

They are processed into a diverse range of foodstuffs including chips (French fries), crisps (chips), potato bread (such as boxty), potato flour and dried potato. They are a common source of starch, glucose and dextrin.

Potatoes have long been frozen, soaked and dried to form a product known as chuño, which has played an important role in the diet of the population of the highland and lowland Andes of South America.

Potatoes are used to produce alcoholic beverages including vodka and schnapps. They are also used as animal feed.

All green parts of the plant, including tubers, that have been exposed to light contain poisonous glycoalkaloids (solanines), so tubers with green patches should not be eaten. Overconsumption of solanine by pregnant women is alleged to promote spina bifida in babies.

This species at Kew

Dried and alcohol-preserved specimens of Solanum tuberosum are held in Kew's Herbarium where they are available to researchers by appointment. Details of some of these specimens can be seen online in Kew's Herbarium Catalogue.

Models of various potatoes, samples of potato starch, dextrin, tubers, potato flour, fruits, rice paper made with potato flour, and non-perishable food made from tubers are held in Kew's Economic Botany Collection in the Sir Joseph Banks Building, where they are available to researchers by appointment.

Distribution

Bolivia, Peru

Ecology

Montane (highlands).

Conservation

Not considered to be threatened; widespread in cultivation.

Hazards

Potatoes contain toxic compounds including solanine, although levels of this are low in commercial varieties and poisoning is rare.

Bernal, R., G. Galeano, A. Rodríguez, H. Sarmiento y M. Gutiérrez. 2017. Nombres Comunes de las Plantas de Colombia. http://www.biovirtual.unal.edu.co/nombrescomunes/

Vernacular

chava, guata roja, paduana, pájara puntelanza, papa, papa abondaria, papa alemana, papa americana, papa arbolona, papa argentina, papa azul, papa azulita, papa bambera, papa bandera, papa batata, papa blanca, papa bogotana, papa boliviana, papa brucha, papa caiceda, papa capiro, papa careta, papa carriza, papa carupa, papa caucana, papa cero, papa chaucha, papa chincheña, papa colorada, papa colorada carreta, papa congola, papa cuarentana, papa cuativa, papa cucuyana, papa cujipamba, papa curiquinga, papa de año, papa de año blanca, papa española, papa extranjera, papa extranjera grande, papa extranjera parda, papa fina, papa florblanca, papa grande, papa guata, papa guayaba, papa holandesa, papa huertera, papa huevita, papa huevodegallo, papa ica, papa injerta, papa lizaraza, papa londres, papa mambera, papa manzana, papa maravilla, papa monserrate, papa montañera, papa morada, papa mujicona, papa naranjo, papa negra, papa nevada, papa noventa días, papa paleña, papa palinegra, papa pambablanca morada, papa pana, papa pana morada, papa panazul, papa pandediós, papa panqueba, papa pañomano, papa paqueña, papa paramera, papa parda, papa pastusa, papa pepina, papa pera, papa plancheta, papa puracé, papa quiteña blanca, papa real, papa redonda, papa reinosa, papa reyes, papa roja, papa rosada, papa rubí, papa sabanera, papa salentina, papa santafereña, papa sellorrojo, papa silvestre, papa sonsoneña, papa tocana, papa tocana blanca, papa tocana colorada, papa tocarreña, papa tolimense, papa tornilla, papa turma, papa ubrevaca, papa única, papa yemehuevo, patata, sachapapa, tocarreña, turma

Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Distribution

Cultivada en Colombia; Alt. 2000 - 3600 m.; Andes.

Morphology General Habit

Hierba

Solanaceae, Jennifer M Edmonds. Oliganthes, Melongena & Monodolichopus, Maria S. Vorontsova & Sandra Knapp. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2012

Type

Type: ? Cult in Europe, “Habitat in Peru”, Herb. Linnaeus 248.12 (LINN!, lecto, designated by Hawkes in Proc. Linn. Soc. London 166: 106 (1956)) [see also Knapp & Jarvis in J.L.S. 104: 358, f. 25 (1990) & Jarvis, Order out of Chaos: 862 (2007)]

Morphology General

Perennial herb, procumbent, creeping or sprawling to 1 m in height with long tuberiferous stolons; tubers extremely variable in colour and shape, small to large; branches spreading or ascending, often flexuous, stems angular or winged, pilose with simple, appressed, eglandular occasionally glandular hairs

Morphology Leaves

Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, 8–28 × 6.5–16 cm, rachides 6–10 cm long, with 3–5 alternate or opposite primary leaflets, ovate to lanceolate and decreasing in size towards the base, 3–6(–10) × 2–4(–7) cm, bases cuneate, entire, apices acute, often oblique, terminal often larger and sessile, usually alternating with small sessile interstitial leaflets 0.4–3 × 0.3–2 mm; surfaces pilose with eglandular hairs, denser below; petioles (and rhachides) often angular or narrowly winged, 2–4(–12) cm long, petiolules absent to 2 mm

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescences terminal becoming lateral with sympodial growth continued by axillary branches, forked cymose panicles, 7–18(–30)-flowered; peduncles 6–12 cm long; pedicels usually erect in flower and in fruit, 1.6–2 cm long, articulated above the middle; axes pilose/villous with long eglandular hairs, dense around point of pedicel articulation

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx campanulate/stellate, 6–7 mm long, pilose/villous externally with scattered long eglandular hairs; lobes broadly triangular tapering narrowly above, 3–9 × 2–3 mm, acute

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla white, blue or violet, often with white radial stripes between the lobes and greenish-yellow basal star, rotate to rotatepentagonal, 1.8–3.5 cm diameter, tube 1.8–2 mm long; lobes broadly triangular, 3–5 × 3–5 mm, tips pubescent, glabrous internally

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Stamens equal; filaments free for 1–2.2 mm, glabrous; anthers yellow to brown, 4–6.2(–8.5) × 1.1–3 mm

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Ovary

Ovary 2.2–4 × 1.8–3.5 mm, glabrous, usually bilocular; style straight, sometimes twisted or sigmoidal, 6.5–13 × 0.2–0.4(–0.8) mm, glabrous above, minutely papillate below, exserted to 3 mm; stigma capitate to clasping, 0.5–1 × 0.5–1.3 mm

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit green, globose to ovoid berries, 1–2(–4) cm diameter, glabrous and smooth, rarely produced in cultivation

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds up to 500, ovoid to elliptic-ovoid, ± 2 × 1.7–2.4 mm, flattened, often covered with the remnants of strands of thickening appearing as pseudo-hairs; sclerotic granules absent.

Ecology

Commonly cultivated in gardens and vegetable plots, but rarely collected; 1650–1950 m

Note

The potato is probably the best-known and economically important member of the Solanaceae ranking among the top five of the world’s most important crop species. It is indigenous to the Andes of Peru, Chile, Bolivia and adjacent parts of South America, with Hawkes (1991) suggesting that its cultivation probably originated in northern Bolivia. The potato was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards in the 1570s, and is commonly known as the White, European or Irish potato. Widely cultivated for its edible tubers or potatoes in temperate and tropical mountain regions both throughout Africa and world, it was introduced into East Africa approximately 100 years ago, though West African introductions occurred much later - after the Second World War. Correll (1962), however cited evidence that potatoes were grown in South Africa in 1833; he thought this may have indicated that some representatives of section Tuberarium (Dunal) Bitter occurred naturally in Africa, suggesting that an indigenous species might occur there possibly due to Continental Drift. Jaeger (1985) considered this highly unlikely, stating that no close relatives of section Petota are indigenous in Africa. Despite its widespread use as an important vegetable throughout these regions, very few herbarium specimens of this species have been collected. Though frequently planted, this species is rarely naturalised. References to the vast literature dealing with the origins, distribution, inter-relationships with wild species and the cultivars of this tetraploid species may be found in Correll (1962) and Hawkes & Hjerting (1969), while a summary of the evolution and domestication of the potato is given in Hawkes (1991). Mansfeld (2001) similarly gives relevant references to the two subspecies commonly recognized in this species: subsp. tuberosum and subsp. andigena (Juz. & Buk.) Hawkes together with their differentiating features, origins and probable current distribution ranges. The vegetative parts and immature berries of this species contain high glycoalkaloid contents, resulting in ‘green’ potatoes being commonly regarded as poisonous.

Distribution

Range: Europe, Middle East, India, China, Australia and New Guinea, N, C and S America, sometimes occurring as an escape Range: Cultivated in Ghana, Cameroon, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa Flora districts: K4

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident

Vernacular

Chauacha, Papa, Papa de año, Papa paramuna, Papa sabanera, Turma

Vernacular

Chauacha, Papa, Papa de año, Papa paramuna, Papa sabanera, Turma

Vernacular

Papa criolla

Use Food

'Roots' - edible (Florez-Cárdenas et al. 2010). Food (Florez-Cárdenas et al. 2010). 'Roots' - Used to make vodka (Florez-Cárdenas et al. 2010).

Use Gene Sources

Crop wild relatives which may possess beneficial traits of value in breeding programmes (State of the World's Plants 2016).

Use Materials Other Chemicals

The starch is used in the production of paper and textiles (Florez-Cárdenas et al. 2010).

Use Materials Unspecified Materials Chemicals

Materials (State of the World's Plants 2016).

Use Medicines Digestive System Disorders

Used in liquid medicines (Florez-Cárdenas et al. 2010).

Use Medicines Inflammation

'Roots' - Used in liquid medicines in the treatment of gastritis (Florez-Cárdenas et al. 2010). Used to alleviate inflammation (Florez-Cárdenas et al. 2010).

Use Medicines Skin or Subcutaneous Cellular Tissue Disorders

'Roots' - Used in liquid medicines in the treatment of pectic ulcers (Florez-Cárdenas et al. 2010).

Use Medicines Unspecified Medicinal Disorders

Medicinal (Instituto Humboldt 2014).

Use

Food and drink, fodder.