LeafEach has about four pairs of leaflets and one at the tip.
Main stemPotato stems are hairy.
FlowerWhite, pink, blue or purple, with a yellow centre.
FruitIt looks like a cherry tomato and holds tiny seeds. It is not good to eat.
RootsThey take up water; the potatoes are not roots.
StolonA potato forms at the swollen tip of a stolon.
TuberA swollen stem that stores starch for the plant.
A potato up close 3
SkinA corky layer that protects the tuber; botanists call it periderm.
EyesEach eye holds buds that can grow into a new plant.
LenticelsSmall pores that let the potato breathe.
How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-29 against OpenStax Biology 2e, section 30.2 Stems (tubers as swollen ends of stolons that store starch, with buds seen as the eyes on potatoes; stems, nodes and buds; lenticels; periderm), https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/30-2-stems, and against Wikipedia, text only: Potato (hairy stems, leaves of about four pairs of leaflets, flower colours, small green fruits like cherry tomatoes with about 300 seeds, tubers at the tips of stolons, eyes and lenticels, skins) and Tuber. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-05 from plain geometry in code; nothing traced. Three CC0 photographs on Wikimedia Commons were looked at for the form only: Potatoe plant (Solanum tuberosum) 1.jpg, Solanum tuberosum Tennaer.jpg and Solanum tuberosum inflorescence 74 Sunbury Street Geebung P1130423.jpg. Licence: own work
How it works
The top drawing is a whole potato plant: leaves, flowers and a small fruit above the soil, and roots and long underground stems below with potatoes at their tips. The bottom drawing is one potato up close.
Read the full guide
Above the ground, below it, then close up
Numbers 1 to 4 are above the soil: the leaves, the stem, the flowers and the fruit. Numbers 5 to 7 are underground: the roots, the stolons and the tubers, which are the potatoes. Numbers 8 to 10 are on one potato: its skin, its eyes and its tiny breathing pores.
A potato is not a root. It is a swollen underground stem, which is why it has eyes with buds.
Questions and answers
What part of the plant is a potato?
A potato is a tuber, a swollen underground stem. It grows at the tip of a thin underground stem called a stolon and stores starch for the plant.
What are the eyes on a potato?
Small dimples that hold buds. Each bud can grow into a new shoot, which is why a piece of potato with an eye can grow a whole new plant.
Do potato plants have fruit?
Yes. After flowering, many potato plants grow small green fruits that look like cherry tomatoes and are full of tiny seeds. They are not the potatoes, and they should not be eaten.