The Désirée potato (sometimes rendered Desirée or Desiree) is a red-skinned ''main-crop''

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

originally bred in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in 1962. It has yellow flesh with a distinctive flavour and is a favourite with allotment-holders because of its resistance to drought, and is fairly resistant to disease. It is a versatile, fairly waxy variety which is firm and holds its shape, and is useful for all methods of cooking, from roasting to mashing and salads. It is immune to

potato wart The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

and it is resistant to skin spot. It has good resistance to PVY, tuber late

blight Blight is a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism. Description Blight is a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organs. A ...

and blackleg. It also has moderate resistance to PVA, PVX and

fusarium dry rot ''Fusarium'' dry rot is one of the most common potato diseases. It is caused by fungi in the genus ''Fusarium''. This fungi causes a variety of colored rots in potatoes. This pathogen, while having both a sexual and asexual form, stays in an asexua ...

. It is found to be moderately susceptible to leaf late blight and leaf roll, also it is susceptible to

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

Description

*Habit: Medium height, later spreading *Foliage: Medium to dark grey-green, strong purple colour throughout plant *Stems numerous, purple *Leaf rigid, open, slightly arched *Leaflets oval, pointed *Secondaries few *Buds/flowers: Buds large, red-purple on hairy stalks, flowers red-violet fading to white

References

Other sources

* * * Potato cultivars {{potato-stub