Potato and Tuber Crops

Botany

• Cultivated species A. paeonifolius is a robust herbaceous plant 1.0 – 1.5 m tall.
• Large dissected tripartite leaves constitute the luxuriant outspreading crown-like foliage, borne on a fairly thick single upright “stem”.
• The aerial “pseudostem” which is round with characteristic irregular blotches is botanically a leaf petiole.
• Though crop is perennial due to underground stem, it is treated as an annual with a duration of 8-9 months.
• It is usually harvested when shoot becomes yellow and withers (8-9 months after planting).
• It flowers once in 1-3 years.
• Inflorescence consists of a bell-shaped spathe surrounding a central yellow spadix and is borne on a very short stalk.
• It appears almost at ground level. Although wild species flower and set seeds profusely, cultivated species fall to set seeds under normal condition due to extreme protogyny coupled with delay in opening of spathe.