Before diving into the details of the Great Potato Famine, lets learn a little more about its background. Today I will discuss the fungus that caused the potato famine.
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Sporangia on a
sporangiophore of Phytophthora infestans
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Phytophthora infestans is the species of fungus that affected the Irish and European potatoes in the 1840s. This fungus causes the potato disease know as "late blight" or "potato blight". Because this is a fungus, it spreads by spores called sporangia. It is theorized that the fungus came from the Mexico area and then traveled to the East coast of the United States. From here, wind carried the spores across the U.S. where potatoes were shipped to Europe.
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| Potato with Phytophthora infestans blight |
The symptoms of the disease include infected leaves and rots of the tuber. The leaves may develop holes and brown areas. The potatoes develop shrunken areas, though color is not usually noticeably different. However, the plant is weakened, causing secondary infections to set in. This causes the entire potato to rot and become blackened in appearance.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/before.htm
http://www.extento.hawaii.edu/kbase/crop/type/p_infest.htm
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