Potatoes Have Flowers?!

Potatoes are in the Solanaceae family, also known as the Nightshade family. The pretty purple flowers that grow from potato plants are a good reminder that potatoes are cousins to eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes. 

Here’s something you probably already knew: the part of the potato plant we’re interested in eating grows beneath the surface—it’s the spud, or the tuber, that we dig up at the end of this plant's life cycle.

But what you maybe didn’t know is that the parts of the plant above the soil are not at all edible. (Another potato cousin is called deadly nightshade, AKA belladonna.) Potato leaves, flowers, and fruit (yup, they can produce a berry that looks a bit like a green tomato) are, in fact, poisonous. Not kill-you-instantly-poisonous, but you definitely wouldn’t feel great for a bit. 

Why Do Potatoes Produce Flowers?

Potato plant flowers, as with flowers in general, appear at the end of the plant’s life cycle to attract pollinators that will help the plant reproduce and make more of itself for the future. Flowers could be a sign that the plant has started to produce tubers underground; flowers could alternatively be an indicator that the plant has been over-fertilized, which can cause a plant to rush flower production. Really high or low temperatures can also encourage a plant to hurry up and reproduce before its ideal growing season ends. 

What to Do When Your Potato Plant Flowers

When you see flowers on your potato plants, I recommend cutting them off for two main reasons.

First of all, you don’t want the flowers to produce a fruit that small children or pets might be tempted to eat.

Secondly, pruning the flowers is a great way to increase production of spuds. When a plant flowers, it’s sending some of its energy to the flower to produce fruits and seeds, but we want that energy to go below ground to the yummy part we eat. 

To prune the flowers, you can use scissors or gardening shears to cut right at the base of the stem with the flower. This tells the plant to stop sending its energy to seed production and to keep producing tubers. Pruning is such an effective way to direct the plant where you want its energy to go. 

Is There Any Reason to Keep a Potato Flower?

If you are interested in collecting potato seeds for next year, you can always let one or two plants produce flowers—just make sure to monitor children or pets so they’re not tempted to pop something that shouldn’t be eaten into their mouths. 

Whatever you decide to do with your flowering potatoes, we hope you end up with delicious spuds pulled right from your backyard garden!