Potatoes originate from Peru

This video says about itself:

Peru: The Real Gold of the Incas | Global 3000

30 June 2014

The humble potato is known the world over. But native Peruvian varieties can look quite a bit different than most of us are used to. Some are red or blue, others are long and skinny. More then 4,500 potato varieties are grown in Peru. The wealth of varieties is a natural treasure that’s worth preserving, especially in the face of climate change.

Reuters reports:

Ancient Peruvians loved their spuds

Maggie Fox

Tuesday, 4 October 2005

The first cultivated potato was grown in what is now Peru, researchers say, and it originated only once, not several times, as some experts propose.

The genetic study shows the first potato known to have been farmed is genetically closest to a species now found only in southern Peru, the US and UK researchers write online, ahead of print, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This result shows the potato originated one time and from a species that was distributed in southern Peru,” says Professor David Spooner, a US Department of Agriculture researcher at the University of Wisconsin, who led the study.

The findings challenge theories that potatoes were first cultivated in Bolivia or Argentina, or that farmers bred them several different times in several different places.

“The origin of crop plants has long fascinated botanists, archaeologists, and sociologists with the following fundamental questions: when, where, how, why, and how many times did crop domestication occur? What are the wild progenitors of these crops?” the researchers write.

The study did not address when the first potato would have been cultivated, but other research suggests it would have been between 7000 and 10,000 years ago.

A single species

Potatoes are a major food staple around the world and mostly belong to a single species Solanum tuberosum.

Good the research was not done by ex US Vice President Dan Quayle.

Ancient Peruvian dog cemeteries: here.