Species
+

Solanum tuberosum L.

Irish Potato, Kartoffel (DE); Papa (ES); Potato (EN), Potato

Climate known 63 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The potato is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant Solanum tuberosum, a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Potato”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Solanum

Solanum is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant. It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae, comprising around 1,500 species. It also contains the so-called horse nettles, as well as numerous plants cultivated for their ornamental flowers and fruit.

Text from Wikipedia, “Solanum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia +7
Wild records
133 in range· 125 open

At a glance

Warmest month
16°C
Oct, mean day; nights 7 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1113mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 176 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1113 mm a year, wettest January at 176 mm, driest July at 28 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -0.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Battata tuberosa (L.) Hill; Battata tuberosa (L.) Hill ex B.D.Jacks.; Lycopersicon tuberosum (L.) Mill.; Parmentiera edulis Raf.; Solanum andigena subsp. acutifoliatum Lechn. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (851 mm of 1113 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 11.4 °C against a yearly mean of 10.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1113 mm a year, wettest January at 176 mm, driest July at 28 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1113 mm a year at the habitat, 851 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 176 mm, driest July at 28 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 552 mm to 2339 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -0.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -0.3 °C, the absolute minimum -3.3 °C, about 5 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 18.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells -3.1 °C to 10.9 °C), warmest day 15.8 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 14 °C in Jul to 16 °C in Oct; mean night from 4 °C in Jul to 8 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1113 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 123 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 18.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-5°10°15°20°25°30°frost18.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 29–40RH 60–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 123 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 12–2716 / 12–2716 / 12–2615 / 11–2215 / 11–2014 / 10–2014 / 9–2015 / 10–2116 / 11–2116 / 12–2216 / 12–2416 / 12–26
Night °C8 / 4–178 / 4–178 / 4–157 / 2–136 / -1–125 / -3–114 / -3–114 / -2–116 / -1–127 / 2–127 / 3–147 / 4–15
Rain mm176 / 10–356163 / 12–306162 / 14–27979 / 17–22644 / 4–20229 / 3–17128 / 3–15834 / 8–11048 / 10–13597 / 19–247114 / 11–231139 / 9–296
DLI38 / 29–5336 / 29–4734 / 28–4231 / 25–4030 / 19–3829 / 15–3531 / 17–3734 / 23–4137 / 30–4640 / 30–5040 / 28–5339 / 29–54
RH %66 / 57–7266 / 57–7266 / 57–7164 / 52–7063 / 44–7061 / 37–6960 / 38–6860 / 41–6761 / 46–6862 / 49–6963 / 52–7065 / 54–71

Each figure is the median across the 123 grid cells holding the 132 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2695:2111 (-44.775, -74.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 18.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 123 distinct grid cells holding the 132 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2695:2111 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -45.00_-74.375, lapse-corrected +216 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 335 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeVenezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, France, Baltic States, East European Russia, South European Russia, Zaïre, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Vietnam, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Maryland, Dominican Republic, Haiti
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.36, -65.15 · in the densest population, 57 records (43% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 133 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 125 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1415 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 133 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Solanum tuberosumSolanum tuberosumSolanum tuberosumSolanum tuberosumSolanum tuberosumSolanum tuberosumSolanum tuberosumSolanum tuberosum

Photographs: (c) Alice Shanks, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sergey Basalaev, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Solanum tuberosum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The tomato genome sequence provides insights into fleshy fruit evolution
Hideki Hirakawa, Erika Asamizu, K Shirasawa, Sachiko Isobe (2012) · Nature
Genome sequence and analysis of the tuber crop potato
X X Xu, Pan S, Shifeng Cheng, Bo Zhang (2011) · Nature
Root Exudation and Rhizosphere Biology
Travis S. Walker, Harsh P. Bais, Erich Grotewold, Jorge M. Vivanco (2003) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Non‐destructive optical detection of pigment changes during leaf senescence and fruit ripening
Mark N. Merzlyak, Anatoly A. Gitelson, О. Б. Чивкунова, V. Yu. Rakitin (1999) · Physiologia Plantarum
Bulk and Rhizosphere Soil Bacterial Communities Studied by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis: Plant-Dependent Enrichment and Seasonal Shifts Revealed
Kornelia Smalla, Gabriele Wieland, Arno Buchner, A. Zock (2001) · Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Plant hormones : physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology
Peter J. Davies (1995) · Medical Entomology and Zoology
Mycorrhizal Fungi Can Dominate Phosphate Supply to Plants Irrespective of Growth Responses
Sally E. Smith, F. A. SMITH, Iver Jakobsen (2003) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Regulation of Abscisic Acid Biosynthesis
Liming Xiong, Jian‐Kang Zhu (2003) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Specificity of Twelve Lectins Towards Oligosaccharides and Glycopeptides Related to N‐Glycosylproteins
Henri Debray, Dominique DECOUT, Gérard Strecker, Geneviève Spik (1981) · European Journal of Biochemistry
Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinases Regulate the Production of Reactive Oxygen Species by Potato NADPH Oxidase
Michie Kobayashi, Ikuko Ohura, Kazuhito Kawakita, Naohiko Yokota (2007) · The Plant Cell

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Solanum 13 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 150 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.