''Solanum brevicaule'' is a

tuber Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growin ...

ous

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

of the family Solanaceae. The species is native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

(

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, Bolivia, and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

). It is related to the

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

, but unlike the potato which is tetraploid, it has several levels of ploidy: diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid. This species gives its name to the "''Solanum brevicaule'' complex" which includes about twenty species of morphologically close wild potato species distributed between central Peru and northern Argentina, and are considered by some taxonomists to be the ancestors of the traditional varieties of potatoes grown in the Andean regions.

References

''Solanum brevicaule'' Bitter
Edible Solanaceae brevicaule Taxa named by Friedrich August Georg Bitter Plants described in 1912 {{Solanales-stub