What else is there to know about potatoes other than that they are tasty? That is about the extent of most people’s knowledge about the peculiar solanaceous plant we call potato and botanists call Solatium tuberosum. Because potatoes belong to the same family as the deadly nightshade, our forefathers had some rather unfortunate experiences with them when they were first brought to Europe. No one knew this strange plant native to Peru’s highlands.
If ever you get the chance to visit the mountainous areas of that country you will be surprised to see how many varieties of potato actually grow there, many not even known to us. In the Altiplano, from Cuzco as far as Puno on Lake Titicaca especially, the Indians cultivate some beautiful vegetables.
It was as late as the sixteenth century when Spanish sailors and Sir Francis Drake first brought potatoes to Europe, with the intention of cultivating them as a food on the European continent. They gave them to their friends but did not explain anything about the new plant. Why not? Well, it often happens, does it not, that someone knows something but does not tell it to another person simply because he thinks that he will be aware of it already. That is exactly what happened with the potato. No one who planted the tubers seemed to realise that the unknown plant was a member of the deadly nightshade family and had poisonous properties. Neither could anyone imagine that it was the tubers themselves that served for food and not the round green berries growing on the plant. In fact, no one took any notice of the actual potatoes. Of course, the result of eating the berries brought only trouble, because anyone who tried the new vegetable from overseas soon suffered from diarrhoea and vomiting.
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