Alturas is a russet

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 ...

variety released in 2002 by the USDA-ARS and the

Agricultural Experiment Station An agricultural experiment station (AES) or agricultural research station (ARS) is a scientific research center that investigates difficulties and potential improvements to food production and agribusiness. Experiment station scientists work with f ...

s of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington and it is under

plant variety protection The Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970 (PVPA), 7 U.S.C. §§ 2321-2582, is an intellectual property statute in the United States. The PVPA gives breeders up to 25 years of exclusive control over new, distinct, uniform, and stable sexually reprod ...

.R. G. Novy, R.G.; Corsini, D. L.; Love, S. L.; Pavek, J.J.; Mosley, A. R.; James, S.R.; Hane, D.C.; Shock, C. C.; Rykbost, K. A.; Brown, C.R.; Thornton, R.E. (2003) “Alturas: A Multi-Purpose, Russet Potato Cultivar with High Yield and Tuber Specific Gravity.” “American Journal of Potato Research” 80:295–301 It is a processing potato that has cold-sweetening resistance, so it can be processed directly out of storage into

French fries French fries (North American English), chips (British English), finger chips ( Indian English), french-fried potatoes, or simply fries, are '' batonnet'' or ''allumette''-cut deep-fried potatoes of disputed origin from Belgium and France. Th ...

and other frozen potato products.

Botanical features

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 growing ...

s are lightly russeted with brown skin * Tubers are oval to oblong * Tuber sprouts are green * Flesh is white and has a shallow eyes * Has a large, open canopy and is a late-maturing variety * Plant stems are green with some

anthocyanin Anthocyanins (), also called anthocyans, are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart gave the name Anthokyan to a chemical compo ...

pigmentation * Has white flowers and yellow

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s * Range of one to eight inflorescences per plant

Agricultural features

* Higher yields and higher

specific gravity Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water (molecule), wa ...

than

Russet Burbank Russet Burbank is a potato cultivar with dark brown skin and few eyes that is the most widely grown potato in North America. A russet potato, russet type, its flesh is white, dry, and mealy, and it is good for Baked potato, baking, Mashed potatoe ...

* Resistant to Verticiliium wilt and

early blight ''Alternaria solani'' is a fungal pathogen that produces a disease in tomato and potato plants called early blight. The pathogen produces distinctive "bullseye" patterned leaf spots and can also cause stem lesions and fruit rot on tomato and tube ...

* Superior to the more common Russet Burbank in that it is more resistant to Corky ringspot,

late blight ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by ''Alternaria solani'', is also often called "pot ...

, tuber net necrosis (caused by

Potato leafroll virus Potato leafroll virus (PLRV) is a member of the genus ''Polerovirus'' and family ''Solemoviridae''. The phloem limited positive sense RNA virus infects potatoes and other members of the family Solanaceae. PLRV was first described by Quanjer ''e ...

Fusarium ''Fusarium'' is a large genus of filamentous fungi, part of a group often referred to as hyphomycetes, widely distributed in soil and associated with plants. Most species are harmless saprobes, and are relatively abundant members of the soil mi ...

dry rot, and

common scab Common scab is a plant disease of root and tuber crops caused by a small number of '' Streptomyces'' species, specifically '' S. scabies'', '' S. acidiscabies'', '' S. turgidiscabies'' and others. Common scab mainly affects potato ...

* Susceptible to

Potato virus X Potato virus X (PVX) is a plant pathogenic virus of the family ''Alphaflexiviridae'' and the order ''Tymovirales''. PVX is found mainly in potatoes and is only transmitted mechanically. There are no insect or fungal vectors for this virus. This v ...

Potato virus Y Potato virus Y (PVY) is a plant pathogenic virus of the family ''Potyviridae'', and one of the most important plant viruses affecting potato production. PVY infection of potato plants results in a variety of symptoms depending on the viral stra ...

bacterial soft rot Bacterial soft rots are caused by several types of bacteria, but most commonly by species of gram-negative bacteria, ''Erwinia'', '' Pectobacterium'', and ''Pseudomonas''. It is a destructive disease of fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals found wo ...

, root-knot nematode, and bacterial ring rot

References

Potato cultivars {{Potato-stub