Potato

Potato

Scientific name: Solanum tuberosum L.

Bangla/local name: আলু (‘Alu’)

Taxonomic Position According to Cronquist (1988)

Botanical Description of Potato

Habit: The potato is a perennial herb, although in cultivation used as an annual crop.

Root: Potato has a fibrous, rather weak root system

Stem: Potato has various more or less erect, angular branched and rather weak and juicy stems (30-80 cm).

Leaf: Alternate, leaves are pinnately compound with three or four pairs of ovate leaflets with smaller ones in between in outline. The leaflets are opposite or alternate.

Inflorescence: The inflorescence is a many flowered cymose panicle which occurs in the leaf axil.

Flower: The flower is complete actinomorphic

Calyx: Sepal 5

Corolla: Petal 5,  white, yellow or pale violet in color

Androecium: Stamen 5

Fruit: Berry greenish or whitish in color

Economic Importance: Tubers of potato are used for human consumption worldwide. They form staple food or cooked as a vegetable in various ways. Potato may be boiled, roasted or steamed and mashed with mustard oil, soybean oil, margarine or butter, and is part of various curry dishes in roost of the Asian countries. Large quantities are consumed fried as chips, or as thinly sliced chips. The fairly good storing ability of potatoes results in their supply for consumption reasonably independent of season.

Table 1. Potato Varieties developed by Tuber Crop Research Center (TCRC), BARI, Joydebpur, Bangladesh