The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the family Solanaceae. It has angular herbaceous stems, and grows to about 80 centimetres tall. The leaves are pinnate, the flowers pretty, large, numerous and disposed in corymbs, and coloured violet, bluish, reddish or whitish. The fruit is globular, about the size of a gooseberry, reddish-brown or purplish when ripe, and contains numerous small seeds. The tubers which are eaten are abnormally dilated underground shoots, their increase in size being the result of cultivation. Their true nature is revealed by the 'eyes' which are leaf buds, and if a tuber is planted in the ground a young plant will sprout, the starchy matter of the tuber supplying nutriment until it throws out roots and leaves and so attains an independent existence. The potato is a native of western South America, where it grows wild chiefly around the Andes, producing small, tasteless, watery tubers. The potato was first introduced into Europe by the Spaniards after the conquest of Peru, by whom it was
spread over the Netherlands, Burgundy, and Italy before the middle of the 16th century. Sir Hohn Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh are all credited with introducing the potato to England in 1565. Although the
potato was widely cultivated in Europe, it was first grown for food on a large scale by the Irish and during the 18th century became a popular food with the poorer classes in Germany. Research Potato
Abbreviations
Nature
Research Potato