Solanum section Petota in Costa Rica: Taxonomy and genetic resources

Prior to 1996, worldwide holdings of germplasm of wild potatoes from Costa Rica amounted to just two collections; this country therefore formed a prio rity for collecting. We mapped all localities of wild potatoes from herbari um specimen data from Costa Pica and collected throughout the country. We m ade 13 collections, 10 of these with botanical seeds. These collections con siderably extend the numbers of accessions and geographic range of the germ plasm available from Costa Pica. The taxonomic identity of the species of w ild potatoes (Solanum sect. Petota) in Costa Pica was previously unresolved . Our fieldwork supports the concept that Costs Rican wild potatoes belong to a single species, S. longiconicum.