Andean Potato Cultivars

Timeline

1. c. -8000–1400Lake Titicaca basin · BoliviaAndean peoples selected thousands of potato cultivars adapted to cold, wet, dry, and saline conditions across the plateau's microclimatic zones; together with llamas and quinoa they formed a highland agricultural complex, providing a stable carbohydrate source for the later expansion of the Inca Empire's population.
2. c. 1438–1530Terraces around Cusco · PeruThe Inca Empire stored large quantities of different potato cultivars in terraces (andenes) and qollqa storehouses, recorded distribution with quipu, and held chuño (freeze-dried potato) processing ceremonies at festivals, enabling highland agriculture to support garrison and corvée populations along the empire's road network.
3. 1521–1530Andean highlands · AndesCivil war in the 1520s and the smallpox epidemic after 1527 devastated the population, but potato cultivars continued to be grown in community terraces, sustaining highland livelihoods. On the eve of Pizarro's expedition around 1530, the Andean landraces were still unknown to Europe — a key native resource about to enter, but not yet part of, the history of global crop exchange.
4. 1530–1600Spain and the Canary Islands · SpainAfter the 1530s Spanish colonists brought small numbers of Andean cultivars to Europe and the Canary Islands for trial planting, initially mostly as ornamental or curiosity plants, until they spread widely in European agriculture in the 18th century, beginning one of the most far-reaching crop dispersals of the Columbian Exchange.