Champion is a potato variety bred by John Nicoll in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

and widely grown in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

during the latter half of the 19th century. The

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 ...

is round, with white skin and yellow flesh. The texture is described as "floury".

History

During the late 19th century, the Champion dominated the Irish potato industry, due largely to its resistance to the blight strain prominent during the 1879 epidemic. The variety grew from a planting of 220,934 acres (27 percent of the total Irish potato crop) in 1880 to a planting of 717,000 acres (80 percent of the crop) in 1894. After 1894, other varieties, including Kerr's Pink and Arran Banner, came to prominence, and the Champion declined in importance./Potato Varieties of Historical Interest in Ireland
Irish Government website Retrieved 2012-06-04

References

Potato cultivars {{potato-stub