The Potato Botany, Production and Uses by Roy Navarre, Mark J

The popularity of the potato has fluctuated over the years and it is therefore appropriate to consider the history of the potato leading up to modern times. About 7000 years ago, inhabitants of the Andes in South America were predominantly hunter-gatherers and tended semi-wild herds of native camelids (llamas, vicuñas, and alpacas), yet they began to take an interest in a curious plant (Fig. 1.1). It flowered and produced inedible seed balls, but also produced starchy underground tubers. The tubers were produced at the end of underground stems, oftentimes located a fair distance from the mother plant. The tubers were large enough for a mouthful after cooking and were energy rich. Furthermore, they acted as big seeds, and once planted, they produced potato plants, which in turn produced more tubers. Because the seeds were large, they had enough stored carbohydrates to restart plant growth initially inhibited by a killing frost (International Potato Center, 2008).