[[Fasciculus:Solanum flowers.JPG|right|thumb|300px|Flowers of a potato plant.]]
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Potato plants are herbaceous [[perennial]]s that grow about 60 cm (24 in) high, depending on variety, the [[Culm (plant)|culm]]s dying back after flowering. They bear white, pink, red, blue, or purple [[flower]]s with yellow [[stamen]]s. The tubers of varieties with white flowers generally have white skins, while those of varieties with colored flowers tend to have pinkish skins.<ref>{{cite book |author=Tony Winch |title=Growing Food: A Guide to Food Production |year=2006 |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]]
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|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=QDrqL2J-AiYC&pg=PA209&dq=potato+plants+60+cm&client=firefox-a}}</ref> Potatoes are [[pollination|cross-pollinated]] mostly by [[insects]], including [[bumblebee]]s, which carry pollen from other potato plants, but a substantial amount of self-fertilizing occurs as well. Tubers form in response to decreasing day length, although this tendency has been minimized in commercial varieties.<ref>{{cite journal |author=VIRGINIA AMADOR, JORDI BOU, JAIME MARTÍNEZ-GARCÍA, ELENA MONTE, MARIANA RODRÍGUEZ-FALCON, ESTHER RUSSO and SALOMÉ PRAT |title=Regulation of potato tuberization by daylength and gibberellins |url=http://www.ijdb.ehu.es/abstract.01supp/s37.pdf |format=PDF |journal=International Journal of Developmental Biology |issue=45 |pages= S37-S38 |year=2001 |accessdate=2009-01-08}}</ref>
