Basic Plant Characteristics

• Fuzzy compound leaves of the potato are arranged in alternating fashion on stems.potato leaves image by Florin Capilnean from Fotolia.com
  
  The potato develops both above- and below-ground structural components. The roots are pale in color, fleshy and elongated but pencil-thick, often referred to as rhizomes. Above-ground stems flush green with exposure to light and bear many green leaves. Each compound leaf is made of several pointed oval leaves with a fuzzy texture. The leading stem, which grows most upright, produces a loose cluster of flowers that range in color from white to pale blue or lavender. The stems are long and may flop to resemble short vines.
  
  

The Potato Blossom

• A potato plant just coming into flower.flowering potato bush image by Alina Goncharova from Fotolia.com
  
  Typically potatoes are grown from cuttings of tubers, known as "seed potatoes." Potatoes are rarely grown from seed since the flowers on the plants often lack viable stamens and pollen. Each flower is bisexual, however, containing viable female pistils and ovaries as well as underdeveloped male stamens; sometimes a few do shed pollen. The flower buds are folded up like an umbrella. When open, the five-lobed petal structure, the corolla, is crowned in an upright cone-like of yellow stamens. The petals are not separate but fused together. If pollinated by insects, the blossom's ovary swells to produce a tiny, greenish yellow fruit that looks like an immature tomato. It is full of seeds.
  
  

Formation of Tubers

• Each tuber contains at least one terminal bud or eye, which can sprout into a new plant.Potato image by lefebvre_jonathan from Fotolia.com
  
  Once potato plants sprout from the soil, small buds form on the lowermost portion of plant stem just above the soil surface. The buds sprout to become stolons, or above-ground stems that trail along the soil surface and take root. As leaves produce more food from photosynthesis, the stolons swell at their tips, creating a small tuber. The tuber enlarges over the growing season, and has an epidermis dotted with occasional terminal buds or "eyes." The core of the tuber, or pith, is juicy and firm, ranging in color from white or yellow to red or purple.
  
  

Agricultural Insight

• Mound soil around plant bases to ensure tubers are never exposed to sunlight.Field of potato image by costarico from Fotolia.com
  
  To maximize the production of stolon and underground tubers, gardeners bring to form a shallow berm or hill up around the base of potato plants. This encourages downward growth and formation of tubers in the soil profile. If exposed to sunlight, the tuber turns green and become inedible because of production of solanine, according to Purdue University. No other parts of the potato plant, except the non-green tuber, is edible.