Solanum_jamesii
Solanum jamesii
Species of plant
Solanum jamesii (common names: wild potato or Four Corners potato)[1] is a species of nightshade. Its range includes the southern United States. All parts of the plant, and especially the fruit, are toxic, containing solanine when it matures.[citation needed] The tubers were/are eaten raw or cooked by several Native American tribes,[2][3] but they require leaching and boiling in clay in order to be rendered edible. The tubers are small when compared to familiar varieties of S. tuberosum.[4]
Escalante Valley in Utah boasts the oldest archaeologically documented cultivation sites of the Four Corners potato, dating back over 7,000 years, and the plant is so prevalent there that a former name for the area was "Potato Valley".[5] S. jamesii is sometimes grown in yards or gardens as an ornamental plant, and there have been recent experiments in Escalante, Utah to start growing it as a food vegetable again, making use of the lower-alkaloid cultivars selected by the natives.[6] According to cultivariable.com, "The primary glycoalkaloid in this species is tomatine, unlike the domesticated potato, in which the primary glycoalkaloids are solanine and chaconine."
