Potatoes as we know them today are the product of a hybridization that took place 9 million years ago between two plants, one of which was an ancestor of the tomato.

There are more than a hundred ways to prepare a potato, and thousands of stories have begun with a shot of vodka distilled from this tuber. For centuries, the potato has been instrumental in feeding the world’s growing population. According to one study, the introduction of the potato from the Americas accounted for about a quarter of the population growth in the Old World between 1700 and 1900.

Now, science reveals the vegetable’s surprising origins: It emerged 9 million years ago as a result of an unusual hybridization between an ancestor of the tomato and an ancient South American plant. This revelation rewrites the evolutionary history of one of the world’s most widely consumed foods and also explains how a simple tuber became a mainstay of the global diet.

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