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POTATO - Solanum tuberosum Linnaeus

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Author Topic: POTATO - Solanum tuberosum Linnaeus  (Read 4212 times)
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Bianca
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« Reply #15 on: January 03, 2009, 11:44:26 am »










These potatoes are often referred to as "Irish" potatoes in the English speaking world because of their association with the Great Irish Famine, which began in 1845 and lasted for six years. The Irish peasant population had become highly dependent on the potato because of the relatively large amount of food that could be produced on fairly small holdings. Immigrant farmers from the Palatinate region of Germany brought their own crops, such as turnips, to Western Ireland. They were much less dependent on the potato than their native Irish neighbors and were largely spared the effects of the potato famine. The disease killing the Irish potato crop was the late blight fungus Phytophthora infestans. The long lasting aftereffects of this famine are well known and well documented.

What is less well known is the role of the British during the potato famine. Rich aristocratic British landowners continued to export grain from Ireland to other parts of the world even as tens of thousands of Irish were dying of starvation. However, there were some British owned estates where not one Irish peasant starved during the famine. Authors like Salaman have written in detail about that situation, which has also been recognized by contemporary British historians.

Most modern potatoes grown in North America arrived through European settlement and not independently from the South American sources. Still, one wild potato species, Solanum fendleri, is found as far north as Texas and used in breeding for resistance to a nematode species attacking cultivated potatoes. A secondary center of genetic variability of the potato is Mexico, where important wild species are found that have been used extensively in modern breeding, such as the hexaploid Solanum demissum, as a source of resistance to the devastating late blight disease.

The potato became an important staple crop in northern Europe as the climate changed due to the Little Ice Age, when traditional crops in this region did not produce as reliably as before. At times when and where most other crops would fail, potatoes could still typically be relied upon to contribute adequately to food supplies during the colder years. The potato was not popular in France during this time, and it is believed that some of the infamous famines could have been lessened if French farmers had adopted it. Today, the potato forms an important part of the traditional cuisine of the British Isles, northern Europe, central Europe and eastern Europe. As of 2007, Germany has a higher consumption of potato per capita than any other country.




* As printed online at www.wikipedia.com. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. 



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