[HN Gopher] How Potatoes Evolved
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How Potatoes Evolved
Author : gmays
Score : 106 points
Date : 2025-08-06 14:36 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nhm.ac.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nhm.ac.uk)
| ggm wrote:
| Not wanting to be completely petty, isn't this true of all viable
| hybrids? Some acquisition of genes from both sides is demanded to
| make a distinction worthy of speciation.
|
| Not that I don't love spuds.
| accidentallfact wrote:
| I don't think there is any specific feature that makes potatoes
| unique.
|
| Two chromozome copies are typical for animals, but the number
| of copies in plants varies widely, and and often changes
| easily, even different variants of the same crop can have
| different numbers of copies.
|
| Underground storage organs are nothing unique, and those of
| potatoes are not even particularly large. Many places prohibit
| fig trees for example, because what you see is basically just
| the tip, and there can be a giant 100m in diameter underground
| that ruins every underground structure in its path. But it's
| full of nasty toxic sap, and harvesting it would be a
| nightmare.
|
| It's just the particular combination of fast growth, edibility,
| and ease of cloning and harvest that makes potatoes unique.
| ggm wrote:
| Well according to the article.. tomatoes supplied a gene
| which turns off and on tuber expression and the other side
| supplied a gene for underground stems (not roots) and to be a
| potato demands both.
| teslabox wrote:
| Nightshades are problematic for stressed and old people because
| the plants have mild poisons. Old people and addicts tend to not
| be able to handle the poisons in tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants
| and chilis.
|
| But for people that are nightshade-tolerant potatoes are an
| excellent food crop.
|
| IIRC, someone was annoyed that do-gooders wanted to remove
| potatoes from the food stamp programs, because the potato is
| actually an almost-complete food. This has morphed into The
| Potato Diet, which calls for eating potatoes and only potatoes
| for a short period of time. From the start of
| October through November in 2010, Voigt consumed only
| spuds, a few basic seasonings and small amounts of oil for
| cooking. His endeavor drew attention from NBC's Today
| Show, CBS News, Fox, NPR and the UK's Daily Telegraph.
| Voigt documented his journey through a blog (
| 20potatoesaday.com ). Tired of potatoes getting a bad rap
| as being nothing but fattening starch and carbs, he wanted
| to make a statement that proved potatoes were very
| nutritious.
|
| - https://spudman.com/article/all-potato-diet-eight-years-late...
| mongol wrote:
| The theory behind it is that potatoes are the most filling food
| of all, so it is hard to over-eat. I tried this diet, and it
| works for weight loss, but it soon made me feel very
| unsatisfied. But with a little bit of variation, i.e. making
| potatoes the base and adding limited extra ingredients, you can
| sustain on it longer.
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| I thought one of the issues with potatoes is that they have a
| really high glycemic index, not lack of nutrients.
|
| So consistently eating a lot of them increases one's risk of
| Type 2 diabetes.
| BSOhealth wrote:
| This is true. Most of the potatoes eaten are valuable in
| caloric-deprived situations, but they are not a long-term
| healthy food due to the thrashing they do to insulin
| management.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| The Danes (maybe all Scandinavians?) eat potatoes with almost
| every meal. Do they have a higher incidence of diabetes?
| alecco wrote:
| That is misleading. Potatoes are ranked as one of the most
| satiating foods per calorie. The problem is people put a lot
| of butter/oil on them. Or eat them too processed.
| ninalanyon wrote:
| > do-gooders wanted to remove potatoes from the food stamp
| programs, because the potato is actually an almost-complete
| food.
|
| What on earth?!
| dyauspitr wrote:
| Why would they want to remove it if it's an almost complete
| food?
| sowbug wrote:
| Read the original quote for full context.
| searine wrote:
| The actual paper in question:
| https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00736-6
|
| Funded by Chinese and US government agencies and agricultural
| research programs.
| pm90 wrote:
| > There are around 140 species of wild potato in South America,
| growing from Mexico in the north all the way down to Argentina
| and Chile in the south.
|
| Super nit, but do authors think Mexico is in South America?
| cariaso wrote:
| I can easily forgive the statement you highlighted, but there
| is zero information about potatoes in this one:
|
| Along with wheat, maize and rice, they are estimated to account
| for up to 80% of all calories eaten by people worldwide.
| foobar1962 wrote:
| I picked that up too. Awkward. I think they mean that 80% of
| all calories are provided by wheat, maize, rice, and
| potatoes.
| darth_aardvark wrote:
| Yeah, but that statement is basically information-free re:
| potatoes.
|
| "Boiled squid liver is a popular food. Along with wheat,
| maize, rice, and potatoes, they make up 80% of all calories
| eaten by people worldwide."
|
| is technically true, but doesn't tell you anything about
| boiled squid liver consumption.
| allturtles wrote:
| FWIW, the data I found puts potatoes at 1.7% of world
| calorie consumption [0], but also puts the sum of
| maize+wheat+rice+potatoes at closer to 50% than 80%.
|
| [0]: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-important-
| staple-fo...
| driggs wrote:
| The point is that potatoes are one of the top 4 food sources
| worldwide, and they collectively dwarf the percentages of the
| long tail of other food sources.
|
| Proportions vary significantly continent-to-continent and
| culture-to-culture, such that it'd be more meaningless to try
| and put a more precise (but less accurate) number on it.
|
| This is not difficult to parse out of the sentence if you
| choose to take a charitable rather than a pedantic
| perspective, which I recommend to you generally.
| kgwgk wrote:
| By "in South America" they meant "South of America" :-)
| msuniverse2026 wrote:
| I dislike potatoes because they are not trve roots but are
| instead tubers. Beetroot and radishes are where the real stuff is
| happening. The potato is a vegetable of stupefaction, radishes
| make you hyper-intelligent.
| metalman wrote:
| your comment shows that you are a real foodie, but
| unfortunately missunderstood , or rather it was the downvoting
| that made re read your comment and go "hey ya!, good one"
| amanaplanacanal wrote:
| I read it, and I must be eating too many potatoes because I
| have no idea what they are on about.
| metalman wrote:
| somewhere, sometime, someone, will perhaps, pull a radish
| out of there garden, wipe the dirt off and hand it to you,
| likely demonstrating the next step of eating it....which
| unlike your first potatoe, you will remember
| nosioptar wrote:
| It's all true. How else would Idahoans be so consistently
| dimwitted?
| stevekemp wrote:
| Off-topic but I have to say that potatoes are incredibly easy to
| grow, and doing so is very worthwhile.
|
| I have a small planter on my balcony at the moment which is
| thriving with leaves, and in a few weeks I'll dig out the harvest
| to see what I got. People grow them in very poor soil, and even
| in literal bags of compost, or buckets. They're easy-going and
| almost trouble-free.
|
| Growing chillis, tomatoes, or herbs on window-sills is kinda fun
| and rewarding, but growing a "proper crop" feels even more
| rewarding. And surprising because you have to wait until you dig
| things up to see how well you did!
| SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
| Where I am it's often not warm and dry enough through summer
| for chillies and tomatoes. If there are a few cooler, wetter
| weeks then they do poorly.
|
| Potatoes are a bit better in that respect.
|
| But in poor weather conditions, blight can easily set in on the
| potatoes and tomatoes. Which makes it a lot less worthwhile.
| Llamamoe wrote:
| I tried planting ones I've left in storage for too long once,
| even buried them a bit underground. The next day the only thing
| left was snail trails ):
| LarMachinarum wrote:
| All with you on the general idea that growing potatoes is easy
| and great. That being said, just a detail:
|
| > People grow them in very poor soil, and even in literal bags
| of compost
|
| a bag of compost is pretty much the exact opposite of "very
| poor soil"; it's about the richest soil there is.
| stevekemp wrote:
| Indeed, the point there as you don't need a planter.
| Literally just a plastic bag of soil bought from a
| hardware/gardening store.
|
| Of course the "new soil" would be full of nutrients, etc, it
| was more that this is possible even if you don't have a
| garden, or other hardware. (Similar intent behind mentioning
| the use of buckets!)
| benchly wrote:
| My wife and I did the same with two planters outside my
| apartment, first time trying our hand at container gardening.
| We are about 10ish days from harvest and exited to see what
| happened. If the amount and health of the leaves are any
| indication, we should pull a meal or two's worth out of it for
| what amounted to very little effort and care. Fingers crossed!
|
| We tried carrots, but they came out very stunted, even
| accounting that they were a smaller variety. The container we
| used was likely too shallow.
|
| Does anyone have other vegetable suggestions for us apartment-
| dwelling container growers to try? We have a few different size
| containers available ranging from about (in inches) 12x12x36 to
| 24x24x24 and space for more.
| Telemark70 wrote:
| Try dwarf French beans.
| stevekemp wrote:
| Exciting times!
|
| I have to say I grew cucumbers for the first time last year,
| and they were surprisingly good. Otherwise the only other
| thing that comes to mind immediately is Strawberries, which
| are also tasty and not so hard to keep up with.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| The most productive things I grow (temperate/cool climate in
| coastal BC) and then actually eat/enjoy:
|
| - Zucchini always grows more than we can use, but they're
| really good. I pick them very small (~6") so the plant
| continues producing and growing more
|
| - Chard grows year-round and is very resilient and low-
| maintenance. It's great in casseroles, soups, sautees, and
| other cooked formats
|
| - Kale is similar. It'll just keep on giving
|
| - Bush beans are amazing in summer, and if you've got
| vertical space, pole beans can be incredible producers too.
| My 8 foot raised bed has a single row of pole beans, and I've
| been harvesting from them for about 6 weeks with plenty more
| to come. This single row is very densely planted, but I feed
| it heavily and ensure it's fully exposed to the sun. With
| enough nutrients and water, you'll get pounds of beans. Again
| I pick them relatively small and often
|
| - Nasturtiums make a beautiful flower but the leaves and
| flowers are incredible in salads, and their seed pods can be
| used to make a really delicious pickle/ferment as well. Throw
| them in hanging baskets and use them to make fun salads
|
| - Scallions are a fun one that can be densely planted and
| only need 6" or so of depth. Bulb onions can be a bit more
| sensitive and demanding, but scallions are pretty easy going.
| I stagger the plantings throughout spring so I can harvest
| bunches of them every few weeks. They never seem to do poorly
|
| I grow lots of other stuff but I don't always eat or enjoy
| them as much as these things. One exception is lettuces and
| other greens/herbs, but I grow those hydroponically indoors
| because it allows for a system that makes timing and
| harvesting much easier so I'm more likely to ensure it
| doesn't go to waste
| benchly wrote:
| I forgot to mention that I tried Kale but as soon as it
| started sprouting, the local chipmunks dug it all up, but
| left the carrots and potatoes alone. I'll have to build a
| cage next season.
|
| Definitely add your other suggestions to the list. We are
| in Michigan, US, so harvest is soon, then Winter, so plenty
| of time to plan and prep as we learn more about container
| gardening.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| To get long slender carrots like you see at the supermarket I
| think you need deep very loose soil. My dad gardened for
| years and never had good luck with carrots. Our soil was just
| too heavy (a lot of clay) and even with the addition of a lot
| of sand they always grew fat and stumpy. He grew them every
| year regardless.
| sowbug wrote:
| Garlic takes a long time, but it's easy and doesn't take up
| much space. It also repels some critters that might otherwise
| help themselves to your crops.
| emptybits wrote:
| I second the garlic recommendation here. It is more tolerant
| to nutrient and water variability than most crops. Slugs and
| many other pests won't bother it.
|
| If you do give it regular fertilizer and water then you can
| plant it extremely densely, seeding just a few inches apart.
| Great for apartment dwellers with raised bed or container
| gardens.
|
| We plant around Halloween and harvest in early July. That
| leaves time and space for a late summer crop if you wish.
|
| Also, garlic stores _very_ well. We harvest about 100 bulbs
| each year from a small plot, maybe 2-3 sq m., and that gives
| us garlic for a year, fresh, cured, minced (into butter or
| pesto), and for gifts.
|
| And don't even get me started on how amazing and versatile
| garlic _scapes_ are. The scape harvest is its own prized
| crop!
|
| Added: I'm in Vancouver. Garlic seems to love the
| overwintering process here, usually with some light snow.
| macromaniac wrote:
| I threw potatoes into the back part of my yard without burying
| them or tending them in any way and they did quiet well. Ended
| up dying from a freeze, I think I will throw them more
| strategically next time.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| One of the most gratifying things I've done in the garden was
| grow a potato tower. The first time I used a variety which
| doesn't root out very well from stems, so the results were
| really disappointing. A few years later I figured out my
| mistake and tried with a more suitable variety, and it was like
| a vertical potato farm in a 1.5m radius. We were so excited
| with how many potatoes came out, haha. I never expected
| knocking down a pile of soil and discovering potatoes to be so
| exhilarating. Especially after the first run was such a
| disappointment
| yzydserd wrote:
| This week's episode of the BBC podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage
| was 42 minutes of Science Comedy dedicated to the spud, featuring
| the same expert as the OP.
|
| Most interesting fact I learned was the effort going toward
| making potato seeds (not seed potatoes).
|
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002fxn7
| begueradj wrote:
| There are more than 4000 varieties of potatoes available in shops
| around the world.
| WrongOnInternet wrote:
| You say tomato, I say potato.
| alanvillalobos wrote:
| > There are around 140 species of wild potato in South America,
| growing from Mexico in the north all the way down to Argentina
| and Chile in the south.
|
| This one always bothers me. Mexico is in North America.
| pstuart wrote:
| Right below the Gulf of America! /s
| rishi_devan wrote:
| Perhaps the word "Latin America" would have been more apt?
| tshaddox wrote:
| I suppose that coincidentally works in this case where
| they're inexplicably omitting the wild potato species in the
| United States.
|
| I personally would have just gone with "the Americas."
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