The strange-but-true origin story of the humble potato

NPR
7m read
Potatoes — both the wild species, and the domesticated ones we buy at the grocery store — evolved from a chance hybridization between two plants some nine million years ago.<br>

Scientists have long wondered about how the potato's genetic lineage came to be. Now they know: The plants are a cross between tomatoes and a plant known as Etuberosum.

(Image credit: Natural History Museum, London)

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