Solanum comes from the Latin solamen meaning to quieten or comfort and refers to the narcotic properties of some species.
Tuberosum refers to the tubers that develop on the underground portion of the stem.
Potato.
Summary:
A weak stemmed plant with compound leaves with 5-9 variable main leaflets, white mauve or purple, 5 petalled, shortly tubular flowers producing green or purplish globular berries. It has large, edible, underground tubers.
Description:
Cotyledons:
Two.
Leaves:
Stipules - False stipule at the base about 20 mm long and almost crescent shaped.
Petiole - Up to 100 mm long.
Blade - About 400 mm long. 5-9 variable main leaflets with a single leaflet at the end of the leaf. Leaflets usually stalked. Hairy or hairless. Smooth edges. Small, variable sized leaflets between main leaflets. Main leaflets 120-150 mm long by 70-80 mm wide, broadly egg-shaped to oval, often notched at the base, tip blunt, tapering or sometimes pointed.
Stems:
Up to 1000 mm tall. Many branched. Sometimes with wings. Wild types often have purplish stems.
Flower head:
Loose cyme with 3-15 flowers.
Flowers:
On long slender stalks often more than 120 mm long. Stalks sharply bent down when in fruit.
Ovary -
Calyx - 6-10 mm long. Hairy. 5 spear shaped lobes that are longer than the tube.
Corolla - 20-40 mm diameter. White to mauve or purple. Short tube with 5 triangular lobes, bent back, with wavy edges that are hairy on the outside and near the edges.
Stamens - Very short filaments.
Anthers - Yellow or orange, 6-9 mm long, longer than the filaments, parallel sided, converging at the tips, protruding from the flower, opening at the top by 2 pores.
Fruit:
Globular berry, 10-40 mm diameter, green or purplish, no stone cells.
Fruit:
Soft, juicy berry.
Seeds:
Flattened, 2 mm long, egg-shaped to oval.
Roots:
Rhizomes bearing large terminal tubers.
Key Characters:
Large tubers.
Biology:
Life cycle:
Perennial.
Physiology:
Reproduction:
By seed and vegetatively from tubers or tuber fragments.
Flowering times:
Seed Biology and Germination:
Vegetative Propagules:
Tubers.
Hybrids:
Allelopathy:
Population Dynamics and Dispersal:
Mainly spread by intentional planting.
Origin and History:
Andes Mountains in South America. Chile. Peru.
Distribution:
ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA.
Habitats:
Climate:
Temperate. Mediterranean.
Soil:
Freely draining, loose or sandy soils.
Plant Associations:
Significance:
Beneficial:
Food crop.
Detrimental:
Weed of following crops, camp-sites, beaches and disturbed areas.
Toxicity:
Green parts and green tubers that have been exposed to light are toxic to humans and stock. The shoots and green skins are more toxic and the berries are very toxic. The toxic principle is an alkaloid called solanine. Cooking reduces the toxicity. Feeding sprouts should always be considered dangerous.
Sprouts of some varieties may cause birth defects.
Symptoms:
Alkaloid poisoning.
Severe chronic anaemia may develop after long term feeding of tubers.
Treatment:
Don't allow stock access to green potato haulms or green or sprouted tubers.
Alkaloid poisoning.
Legislation:
None.
Management and Control:
Thresholds:
Eradication strategies:
Repeated cultivation before new tubers are formed is effective.