Potato cultivars appear in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant Solanum tuberosum and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United Field peas calories to southern Chile.

Potatoes were introduced to Europe from the Americas by the Spanish in the second half of the 16th century. Today they are a staple food in many parts of the world and an integral part of much of the world’s food supply. Like the tomato, the potato is a nightshade in the genus Solanum, and the vegetative and fruiting parts of the potato contain the toxin solanine which is dangerous for human consumption. The name originally referred to the sweet potato although the two plants are not closely related. It subsequently transferred over to a variety of digging tools. Around 1845, the name transferred to the tuber itself, the first record of this usage being in New Zealand English.

English as “earth apple” or “ground apple”. They bear white, pink, red, blue, or purple flowers with yellow stamens. After flowering, potato plants produce small green fruits that resemble green cherry tomatoes, each containing about 300 seeds. This trait is problematic for crop breeding, as all sexually-produced plants must be hybrids.

The gene responsible for its trait as well as mutations to disable it are now known. Diploid hybrid potato breeding is a recent area of potato genetics supported by the finding that homozygous fixation of donor alleles is possible. There are about 5,000 potato varieties worldwide. Three thousand of them are found in the Andes alone, mainly in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia. They belong to eight or nine species, depending on the taxonomic school.

Apart from the 5,000 cultivated varieties, there are about 200 wild species and subspecies, many of which can be cross-bred with cultivated varieties. The International Potato Center, based in Lima, Peru, holds 4,870 types of potato germplasm, most of which are traditional landrace cultivars. There are close to 4,000 varieties of potatoes, each of which has specific agricultural or culinary attributes. Around 80 varieties are commercially available in the UK. A thin section of a potato under light microscopy. It has been treated with an iodine based dye that binds to starch, turning it purple, showing the high starch content. The distinction may also arise from variation in the comparative ratio of two different potato starch compounds: amylose and amylopectin.

They are typically small in size and tender, with a loose skin, and flesh containing a lower level of starch than other potatoes. In the United States they are generally either a Yukon Gold potato or a red potato, called gold creamers or red creamers respectively. Genetic research has produced several genetically modified varieties. Potato starch contains two types of glucan, amylose and amylopectin, the latter of which is most industrially useful. Waxy potato varieties produce waxy potato starch, which is almost entirely amylopectin, with little or no amylose. In October 2011 BASF requested cultivation and marketing approval as a feed and food from the EFSA.

In 2012, GMO development in Europe was stopped by BASF. Genetically modified varieties have met public resistance in the United States and in the European Union. Sucrose is a product of photosynthesis. The potato was first domesticated in the region of modern-day southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia by pre-Columbian farmers, around Lake Titicaca. According to conservative estimates, the introduction of the potato was responsible for a quarter of the growth in Old World population and urbanization between 1700 and 1900. Other major producers were India, Russia, Ukraine and the United States.

This table shows the nutrient content of potatoes next to other major staple foods, each one measured in its respective raw state on a dry weight basis to account for their different water contents, even though staple foods are not commonly eaten raw and are usually sprouted or cooked before eating. Potatoes contain toxic compounds known as glycoalkaloids, of which the most prevalent are solanine and chaconine. Exposure to light, physical damage, and age increase glycoalkaloid content within the tuber. The concentration of glycoalkaloids in wild potatoes is sufficient to produce toxic effects in humans. Different potato varieties contain different levels of glycoalkaloids. The Lenape variety was released in 1967 but was withdrawn in 1970 as it contained high levels of glycoalkaloids. Potatoes are generally grown from seed potatoes, tubers specifically grown to be free from disease and to provide consistent and healthy plants.

To be disease free, the areas where seed potatoes are grown are selected with care. In the US, this restricts production of seed potatoes to only 15 states out of all 50 states where potatoes are grown. Potatoes can also be grown from true seeds. Potato growth can be divided into five phases.