The Red Pontiac, also known as Dakota Chief, is a red-skinned early main crop potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

 variety

Variety (plant)

Plant variety is a legal term, following the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants Convention. Recognition of a cultivated plant as a "variety" in this particular sense provides its breeder with some legal protection, so-called plant breeders' rights, depending to some...

 originally bred in the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and is sold in the United States, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

, the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

 and Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

. It arose as a color mutant of the original Pontiac variety in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, by a J.W. Weston in 1945. It was registered by the USDA in 1983. The original Pontiac itself was a hybrid of varieties "Triumph" and "Katahdin" and released in the USA in 1938 and Australia in 1940.

The plants are large and spreading with angled stems and large light purple flowers. The potatoes are deep-eyed and round with dark red skin and white waxy flesh, though can be knobbly if soil moisture is uneven. The skin colour can fade significantly, leaving only the eyes as red.

Cooking

It can be used in recipes for baking, boiling, mashing, roasting or in salads, and can be cooked in a microwave oven. It is not so suitable for frying. Red potatoes may be cooked with the skin on, and should be scrubbed and rinsed before preparation.