6 Potato Facts That Are Too Hot To Handle

Grown in 125 countries worldwide, potatoes are one of the most important crops on Earth. From the cool climate of Alaska to the sunny fields of Florida, all 50 U.S. states cultivate the beloved spud, helping to feed the average American’s annual potato consumption of 124 pounds.

Whether mashed, baked, or fried, there’s no shortage of ways to prepare this versatile vegetable. Potatoes can also be found in unexpected places, such as chocolate cake or vodka, adding to their renowned flexibility. With a rich history spanning many millennia, the humble potato has fed humankind for thousands of generations. Yet when it comes to this celebrated spud, there’s much more than meets the eye. Here are six terrific tuber facts that might surprise you.

Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes Aren’t Closely Related

At first glance, potatoes and sweet potatoes appear to have a lot in common — they’re physically very similar, and they’re even prepared in many of the same ways. But they actually come from completely different botanical families, rendering them 

distant relatives. 

Sweet potatoes hail from the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), meaning they’re more closely related to morning glories and bindweeds than potatoes. Regular potatoes, on the other hand, belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae), which includes tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. So while potatoes and sweet potatoes may bear a strong resemblance and even share a name, these vegetables are quite different biologically.

The World’s Most Expensive Potato Costs

Up to $300 Per Pound

When it comes to luxurious foods, we often think of truffles, caviar, and wagyu beef, but very rarely do images of potatoes come to mind. However, a select variety of spuds commands an equally extravagant price tag. The Bonnotte de Noirmoutier, or “La Bonnotte” potato, is considered the most expensive in the world. It’s worth more than wagyu beef, fetching prices between $215 and $270 per pound and occasionally even more (high-grade Japanese wagyu averages around $200 per pound). 

Cultivated on the small island of Noirmoutier off the west coast of France, these potatoes feature delicate skin and a waxy interior. Their unique natural flavor — lemony, nutty notes with a sea salt finish — comes from the sandy soil and seaweed-based fertilization of their environment.

Only harvested for one week in May, these spuds must be handpicked due to their fragile skins, making them a rare and labor-intensive treat.

The Irish Potato Famine Actually Began in Peru

Though this 19th-century agricultural disaster hit Ireland the hardest, the infamous potato famine originated thousands of miles away, in Peru. The famine was caused by a fungus-like microorganism called Phytophthora infestans, meaning “plant destroyer.” It likely made its way to northern Europe on ships carrying guano (bird excrement used as fertilizer) from Peru, arriving first in Belgium in the summer of 1845. 

The disease was reported in Ireland a few months later, on September 13, 1845. At the time, roughly 40% of the Irish population ate no solid food other than potatoes, making this crop essential. Within just a few months, nearly half of the 2 million acres of potato plants in Ireland were diseased, contributing to the deaths of a million people. Over the next decade, 2 million Irish residents left the country, many of them fleeing to the United States.

Potatoes Are 80% Water

Potatoes are a hearty addition to any meal; from a wintertime stew to a starchy mash, they’re always deliciously filling. So it might come as a surprise that potatoes are composed of 80% water. It’s the remaining 20% that gives potatoes their substance. The solid matter of a potato is composed of 85% starch (giving potatoes their signature texture) and 15% protein. 

And not only are potatoes filling, but they’re also naturally nutritious. The vegetable contains a variety of essential vitamins, such as vitamin C, niacin, riboflavin, and thiamin, and minerals, including calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and sulfur. With fewer than 100 calories in a typical 6- to 8-ounce potato, they can be a healthy addition to most diets.

The First Potatoes Were Poisonous

While today’s french fries and hash browns are nontoxic, early potato varieties posed a serious health threat. Potato plants were domesticated in the Andes Mountains of South America by Indigenous tribes more than 7,000 years ago. To domesticate the crop, Andeans had to breed varieties of wild potato plants containing solanine and tomatine, toxic compounds that protect the plant from predators and fungi. 

The toxins were not affected by heat, so the Andeans turned to nature for answers. They found a clever solution in the practices of guanacos and vicuñas (wild relatives of llamas), who licked clay before eating the toxic plants. The clay binds to the toxins, allowing them to pass through the digestive system without incident. Andeans began dunking their spuds in a mixture of clay and water before consumption. 

To this day, clay dust is sold in markets across Peru and Bolivia as a supplement for the few remaining varieties of these toxic potatoes, although the toxins themselves have since been bred out.

Potatoes Were the First Vegetables Grown in Space

In 1995, a groundbreaking experiment aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia forever changed extraterrestrial agriculture. Scientists had long speculated that crops could be cultivated in outer space, so a mission was designed to test this hypothesis. Researchers placed five clipped leaves from a potato plant into beds of moistened soil and sent them into space, with a control group remaining on Earth. 

Within a few weeks, all 10 cuttings had sprouted similarly sized potatoes, around the size of a gumball, proving the space spuds that orbited Earth were doing just as well as their counterparts on the ground. This mission paved the way for modern space farming, as seen in current operations on the International Space Station, allowing astronauts to grow fresh food during their time in orbit.