Summary
Solanum jamesii (common names: wild potato or Four Corners potato)[1] is a species of nightshade. Its range includes the southern United States. All parts of the plant, and especially the fruit, are toxic, containing solanine when it matures.[citation needed] The tubers were/are eaten raw or cooked by several Native American tribes,[2][3] but they require leaching and boiling in clay in order to be rendered edible. The tubers are small when compared to familiar varieties of S. tuberosum.[4]
| Solanum jamesii | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Solanales |
| Family: | Solanaceae |
| Genus: | Solanum |
| Species: | S. jamesii
|
| Binomial name | |
| Solanum jamesii Torr.
| |
Escalante Valley in Utah boasts the oldest archaeologically documented cultivation sites of the Four Corners potato, dating back over 7,000 years, and the plant is so prevalent there that a former name for the area was "Potato Valley".[5] S. jamesii is sometimes grown in yards or gardens as an ornamental plant, and there have been recent experiments in Escalante, Utah to start growing it as a food vegetable again, making use of the lower-alkaloid cultivars selected by the natives.[6] According to cultivariable.com, "The primary glycoalkaloid in this species is tomatine, unlike the domesticated potato, in which the primary glycoalkaloids are solanine and chaconine."
References edit
- ^ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Solanum jamesii". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- ^ "NAEB Text Search". Native American Ethnobotany DB. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
- ^ Kinder, David H.; Adams, Karen R.; Wilson, Harry J. (2017). "Solanum jamesii: Evidence for Cultivation of Wild Potato Tubers by Ancestral Puebloan Groups". Journal of Ethnobiology. 37 (2). Society of Ethnobiology: 218. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-37.2.218. S2CID 90864671.
- ^ "The ancient potato of the future". The Counter. 23 November 2021. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
- ^ "Utah home to earliest use of wild potato in North America | UNews".
- ^ "Did potato cultivation begin in Utah's Escalante Valley 11,000 years ago?".
External links edit
- Solanum jamesii information
- Cultivariable Growing Guide