Potatoes: Full of Variety

The Spanish introduced potatoes to Europe in the second half of the 16th century from the Americas. They are a staple food in many parts of the world and an integral part of much of the world's food supply. Following millennia of selective breeding, there are now over 5,000 different varieties of potatoes. The International Potato Center, based in Lima, Peru, holds 4,870 types of potato germplasm, most of which are traditional landrace cultivars.
It had been thought that most potato cultivars derived from a single origin in southern Peru and extreme Northwestern Bolivia, from a species in the S. brevicaule complex. DNA analysis however shows that more than 99% of all current varieties of potatoes are direct descendants of a subspecies that once grew in the lowlands of south-central Chile
There are some 5,000 potato varieties worldwide, 3,000 of them in the Andes alone - mainly in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia. Over 100 cultivars might be found in a single valley, and a dozen or more might be maintained by a single agricultural household. The European Cultivated Potato Database is an online collaborative database of potato variety descriptions updated and maintained by the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency within the framework of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks-which is run by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute.
This is a list of potato varieties or cultivars. Potato cultivars can have a range of colours due to the accumulation of anthocyanins in the tubers. These potatoes also have coloured skin, but many varieties with pink or red skin have white or yellow flesh, as do the vast majority of cultivated potatoes. The yellow colour, more or less marked, is due to the presence of carotenoids. Varieties with coloured flesh are common among native Andean potatoes, but relatively rare among modern varieties. They are rarely cultivated because their yield is usually lower than that of improved varieties and are sought after by some amateurs as a curiosity.
en.wikipedia.o...

[@rubyquail]

I wonder if the largest potato garden is still producing the beautiful varieties.

[@thepotatomuseum]

Good question. We'll look into it. We grew 40 varieties in our gardens in Belgium and also Virginia. I planted 12 varieties with children at The Potomac School.