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Purchase seeds or tubers of Solanum x doddsii

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Description

Solanum x doddsii is a hybrid species native to dry valleys in the Bolivian Andes.  Plants reach about two feet tall.  Tubers are round, reaching about an inch in diameter.  Flowers light purple.  Berries small, round, and reported to be light green, although those that I have seen have been almost white.  Thought to be a natural hybrid of S. chacoense x S. brevicaule, or perhaps the reverse.  Spooner (2018) showed that, in a DNA marker analysis, different accessions of this species grouped closely with either S. berthaultii or S. brevicaule, which may indicate misidentification or that this species is more complex that previously thought.  The data appears to suggest that there may be hybrids of both S. chacoense and S. brevicaule and S. berthaultii and S. brevicaule among accessions identified as S. x doddsii.

The specific epithet, doddsii, honors Kenneth S. Dodds, director of the John Innes Institute, who participated in the original collection of this species.  While there is no completely standardized pronunciation for scientific names, the most common way to pronounce this species is probably so-LAY-num cross DODS-ee-eye.

Unfortunately, Hawkes (1989) notes that the habitat in which this the original collections were made has been destroyed and plants were absent, indicating that it may have been extirpated in the wild.

This species has been tentatively classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (Cadima 2014).

Resistances

Vega (1995) found that this species is less frost tolerant than domesticated potato.

Condition	Type	Level of Resistance	Source
Globodera pallida (Pale Cyst Nematode)	Invertebrate	Somewhat resistant	Castelli 2003
Globodera rostochiensis (Potato Cyst/Golden Nematode)	Invertebrate	Somewhat resistant	Castelli 2003
Phytophthora infestans (Late Blight)	Fungus	Not resistant	Bachmann-Pfabe 2019

Glykoalkaloid content

No information.

Images

Cultivation

I have found seeds of this species easy to germinate using the standard conditions for S. tuberosum.

In my experience, this species does not fruit easily.  Most flowers drop, even when hand pollinated.

Breeding

Crosses with S. tuberosum

Female	Male	Berry Set	Seed Set	Germ	Ploidy	Source
S. x doddsii	S. tuberosum	None	None			Jackson (1999)
S. tuberosum	S. x doddsii	Low	Minimal			Jackson (1999)

Crosses with other species

Jackson (1999) found 0-11% 2n pollen for varieties of this species.

Female	Male	Berry Set	Seed Set	Germ	Ploidy	Source

References

Solanum x doddsii at Solanaceae Source

Solanum x doddsii at GRIN Taxonomy

Solanum x doddsii at CIP