Researchers see big future for purple spud

A new specialty potato, with a striking regal color both outside and in, needs a home.

Christened the Purple Pelisse, the new fingerling variety, which can be managed to produce larger tubers, was developed by the Pacific Northwest Tri-State Breeding Program, which has licensed the spud to the Potato Variety Management Institute.

PVMI, in turn, is seeking to find at least one entity to sublicense the variety to.

Purple Pelisse - pelisse is old French for "covering"or "coat"- was released by Oregon State University, which performed the bulk of the evaluations and is also applying for certification under the Plant Variety Protection Act, and cooperators from the Agricultural Research Service and state universities in Washington and Idaho.

According to the Oregon Potato Commission, this is the first time a specialty potato variety developed by the tri-state breeding program is being sublicensed to only one or a few private companies.

The initial Purple Pelisse cross was made in 2000 by ARS research geneticist Chuck Brown, who works in Prosser, Wash.