Solanum tuberosum
English: potato Spanish: patata Estonian: harilik kartul Portuguese: batata Albanian: patate Turkish: patates Catalan: patatera
Potato plants are herbaceous perennials that grow about 60 cm high. 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.
Potatoes were introduced to Europe in the second half of the 16th century by the Spanish.
Flowers
Colour: white, blue, red- or blue-violet with yellow stamens.
Number of petals: 5
Leaves Oddly curled straightforward.
Number of leaflets: 7
Fruit Potato plants produce small green fruits that resemble green cherry tomatoes, each containing about 300 seeds. Like all parts of the plant except the tubers, the fruit contain the toxic alkaloid solanine.
Authors: Raina Kolk, Karolina Mõttus, Albert Betrián Guiu, Hugo Sanahuja Segura, Pablo Monje, Juanma Guerola