The importance of the potato as a food source and culinary ingredient varies by region and is still changing. Over 99% of potatoes presently cultivated worldwide descend from varieties that originated in the lowlands of south-central Chile. Following millennia of selective breeding, there are now over 5,000 different types of potatoes. As of 2014, potatoes were the world's fourth-largest food crop after maize (corn), wheat, and rice. Today they are a staple food in many parts of the world and an integral part of much of the world's food supply. Potatoes were introduced to Europe from the Americas by the Spanish in the second half of the 16th century. In the Andes region of South America, where the species is indigenous, some close relatives of the potato are cultivated. Potatoes were domesticated there approximately 7,000–10,000 years ago, from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex. The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated by Native Americans independently in multiple locations, but later genetic studies traced a single origin, in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United States to southern Chile. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant Solanum tuberosum and is a root vegetable native to the Americas.

Tomato late blight resistance