In our Community

Potato Diversity Exhibit at Judy’s Day

Each year Cornell Plantations Youth Education program hosts Judy’s Day, a large-scale community event devoted to learning and teaching about plants. This year’s event, ‘Journey the World through Plants’ brought over 1,048 people together, all with a common interest in learning more about plants.

Dr. Joyce Van Eck and research assistant Stephanie Topp from the Harrison Lab joined me at Judy’s Day and we talked with hundreds of people young and old, about Plant Diversity and the Solanaceae Family.

Our exhibit focused on potato diversity. We had over 15 of the 4,000 varieties of potatoes on display with information on origins, breeding and nutrition.

Visitors also examined common traits in Solanaceae fruits, did some taste testing and potato stamps were available for the youngest visitors. Special thanks to Glenn Bucian, gardener at the Pounder Heritage Garden, for contributing a great diversity of fruits and tubers to our exhibit.

To learn more about how researchers study Solanaceae Diversity visit here:

http://www.bti.cornell.edu/multimedia/puzzleComplete.html

Dr. Joyce Van Eck explaining how plants like tomato, potato, eggplant, pepper and petunia are related and grouped into a family that scientists call the Solanaceae Family.	Undergraduate students talking with Stephanie Topp about plant diversity.	Stephanie Topp, research assistant in the Harrison Lab, points out shared characteristics in the fruits of potato, tomatillo, eggplant and pepper.