Potato fruit

toxic

fruits produced by mature potato plants

The potato fruit is the part of the potato plant that, after flowering, produces a toxic, green cherry tomato-like fruit.

Characteristics

After flowering, potato plants produce small green fruits that resemble green

propagated vegetatively

by planting tubers, pieces of tubers cut to include at least one or two eyes, or cuttings, a practice used in greenhouses for the production of healthy seed tubers. Plants propagated from tubers are clones of the parent, whereas those propagated from seed produce a range of different varieties.

Potato fruits are produced when the plants experience cool temperatures and sufficient water.^[2] In 2014, many gardeners in Michigan, United States, were alarmed when they found the green fruit which are not normally produced on the potato plant in that region. This was due to the weather in July that year being cooler and wetter than normal, allowing the plants' flowers sufficient time to be pollinated and produce fruit.^[3]

In popular culture

Dorothy L. Sayers's short story The Leopard Lady, in the 1939 collection In the Teeth of the Evidence, features a child poisoned by potato berries injected with the alkaloid solanine to increase their toxicity.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ "Tomato-like Fruit on Potato Plants". Archived from the original on 2004-07-16. Retrieved 2016-10-01.
^ "Potatoes Grow Tomatoes?". Purdue University Extension. Archived from the original on 2003-08-30.
^ Voyle, Gretchen (12 September 2014). "What fruit is growing on my potato plants?". MSU Extension. Michigan State University. Retrieved 2 November 2018.

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[1] "Tomato-like Fruit on Potato Plants". Archived from the original on 2004-07-16. Retrieved 2016-10-01.

[2] "Potatoes Grow Tomatoes?". Purdue University Extension. Archived from the original on 2003-08-30.

[3] Voyle, Gretchen (12 September 2014). "What fruit is growing on my potato plants?". MSU Extension. Michigan State University. Retrieved 2 November 2018.

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