Domestication of the Potato

The potato was domesticated from wild Solanum species in the Andean altiplano near Lake Titicaca, on the border of modern Peru and Bolivia, likely between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago. Andean farmers developed thousands of distinct landraces adapted to the extreme altitude and cold of the high Andes, and the crop became a staple of Andean civilizations including the Inca, who also developed freeze-drying preservation techniques for it. The potato reached Europe in the late 16th century following Spanish contact with the Andes and, after centuries of slow and uneven adoption, became a staple crop across Northern Europe by the 18th and 19th centuries, with consequences that included both major population growth and, when the crop failed, catastrophic famine.