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Purchase seeds or tubers of Solanum vernei

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Description

Solanum vernei is a wild potato species native to Argentina and just barely reaching into Bolivia.  Plants can reach a bit more than four feet tall.  Purple flowers.  Berries are small and light green.  Stolons more than two feet long.  Tubers are small, whitish, round to ovoid.  This species can survive frosts down to 23 degrees F (-5 C) (Li 1977).  Vega (1995) found that this species is more frost tolerant than domesticated potato.

The specific epithet, vernei, honors French botanist Jean-Baptiste Verne. While there is no completely standardized pronunciation for scientific names, the most common way to pronounce this species is probably so-LAY-num VURN-eye.

Condition	Type	Level of Resistance	Source
Globodera pallida (Pale Cyst Nematode)	Invertebrate	Somewhat resistant	Bachmann-Pfabe 2019
Meloidogyne incognita (Root Knot Nematode)	Invertebrate	Resistant	Nirula 1967
Phytophthora infestans (Late Blight)	Fungus	Somewhat resistant	Bachmann-Pfabe 2019
Phytophthora infestans (Late Blight)	Fungus	Some resistance	Karki 2020

Glykoalkaloid content

Van Gelder (1988) found high levels of both solanine/chaconine and solasodine glycoalkaloids in this species.  TGA levels ranged from 622 to 677 mg / 100 g.

Images

Cultivation

Towill (1983) found that seeds of this species stored at 1 to 3 degrees C germinated at 96% after 17 years.

Breeding

Crosses with S. tuberosum

This species has been included in the pedigrees of at least 19 hybrid cultivars of Solanum tuberosum, including ‘Hampton’ (Plaisted 1989).

Female	Male	Berry Set	Seed Set	Ploidy	Germ	Source
S. tuberosum	S. vernei	Moderate	Low			Jackson (1999)
S. vernei	S. tuberosum	None	None			Jackson (1999)

Crosses with other species

Jackson (1999) found 2-20% 2n pollen for varieties of this species.

Female	Male	Berry Set	Seed Set	Ploidy	Germ	Source

References

Solanum vernei at Solanaceae Source

Solanum vernei at GRIN Taxonomy