AgricultureID

Cultivar · Potato cultivar

Désirée

Désirée is a red-skinned, yellow-fleshed Dutch maincrop potato, a widely grown, versatile all-rounder used for boiling, roasting, mashing, and chips.

Dated referenceLast reviewed: 2026-07-12Updated: 2026-07-12
Illustrative diagram · AgricultureID (original)

Record

Cultivar / variety
Variety of
Potato
Botanical taxon
Solanum tuberosum
Type
Cultivar
Breeding method
Cross-breeding
Origin
Netherlands, Netherlands
Registry status
Listed · European Union · as of 2026-07-12
Registries
Adaptation
A temperate maincrop grown as a cool-season crop like potato generally; sensitive to frost and to heat during tuber bulking. Grown on the loose, well-drained soils preferred by potato generally; no unusual soil requirement is asserted here.
Intended use
Table (boiling, roasting, mashing), Chips / French fries

Registry listing or variety protection is jurisdiction- and date-specific and does not by itself indicate current commercial availability, universal cultivation approval, patent status, or a recommendation.

Désirée is a red-skinned potato bred in the Netherlands, distinguished by its smooth red skin and pale-yellow flesh. It became one of the most widely grown red-skinned varieties internationally and is treated as a versatile, all-purpose potato.

The flesh is firm and moderately floury, allowing the tubers to be used for boiling, roasting, mashing, and chips. Its combination of appearance, versatility, and wide adaptation contributed to its popularity across many growing regions.

Background and identity

Désirée is a Dutch-bred maincrop variety produced by cross-breeding. It is best recognised by its red skin and pale-yellow flesh, an uncommon and marketable combination that helped make it a widely grown red variety in many countries.

Skin
Smooth red
Flesh colour
Pale yellow
Cooking character
Firm and versatile; a moderately floury all-rounder

Registry status and cultivation

Désirée is admitted to the EU Common Catalogue of varieties of agricultural plant species, which permits its marketing within the European Union. Listing is a marketing permission rather than a recommendation and is version- and date-specific. As a maincrop it is grown as a cool-season crop like potato generally, and its cooking and agronomic behaviour vary with region, season, and storage.

Official variety registration

Entries recorded for this denomination in official variety registers. Registration is a legal fact about marketing or ownership, separate from where the variety is grown or whether seed is available.

Current entries (5)
RegisterStatusSpecies as publishedRegister reference
CzechiaNational list entry — agricultural speciesPermission to marketRegisteredSolanum tuberosum L.NLI/AGR/CZ/SOLAN_TUB/H1774
FranceNational list entry — agricultural speciesPermission to marketRegisteredSolanum tuberosum L.NLI/AGR/FR/SOLAN_TUB/246860
LuxembourgNational list entry — agricultural speciesPermission to marketRegisteredSolanum tuberosum L.NLI/AGR/LU/SOLAN_TUB/LU_AGR_109.0_100031
NetherlandsNational list entry — agricultural speciesPermission to marketRegisteredSolanum tuberosum L.NLI/AGR/NL/SOLAN_TUB/246860
SpainNational list entry — agricultural speciesPermission to marketRegisteredSolanum tuberosum L.NLI/AGR/ES/SOLAN_TUB/246860

Entries that are no longer current

Each register decides separately, so these are grouped by instrument and jurisdiction and never combined into one timeline.

AustriaNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

GermanyNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

HungaryNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

PortugalNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

SlovakiaNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

SwitzerlandNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

History records what an official source published at a point in time. Where the source states the date a change took effect, that date is shown; where it does not, only the date AgricultureID observed the change is shown, and it is labelled as such.

Each history is specific to one jurisdiction and one legal instrument. A right that expired in one country says nothing about a listing in another, and they are never combined.

A variety registration permits marketing; a plant variety protection right is ownership. They are granted by different bodies under different law and are never added together.

Entries are matched to this cultivar by identical denomination and by matching botanical species. Registers do not publish a global variety identifier, so a same-name entry in the same species could in principle be a distinct variety.

Registration is jurisdiction-specific, is granted under a particular legal instrument, and changes. A variety absent from a register may still be grown; confirm the current position with the responsible authority before acting on it. How registration is recorded.

Relationships

Evidence-backed connections in the knowledge graph.

Adapted to climate

Adapted to soil

Scope & limitations

Geographic scope: Bred in the Netherlands and grown widely internationally. Culinary and agronomic behaviour is region- and season-specific.

Climate context: Temperate cool-season maincrop.

  • Cooking and agronomic behaviour is region- and season-specific and varies with storage.
  • Registry/listing status is jurisdiction- and date-specific; confirm against the current EU Common Catalogue.
  • The exact year of introduction is reported inconsistently in the literature and is therefore not stated.

Sources

This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.

  1. [1]EU Common Catalogue of varieties of agricultural plant species (opens in a new tab)

    European Commission — Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety

    Authoritative

    Cited for: EU Common Catalogue listing of the variety

    Type:
    Official registry
    Jurisdiction:
    European Union
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12
  2. [2]GRIN-Global / National Plant Germplasm System (opens in a new tab)

    USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

    Authoritative

    Cited for: Solanum tuberosum classification and germplasm context

    Type:
    Official registry
    Jurisdiction:
    United States / Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12
  3. [3]AHDB — Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (opens in a new tab)

    Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)

    High

    Cited for: Potato variety characteristics and background

    Type:
    Government agency
    Jurisdiction:
    United Kingdom
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12

Related topics

Crops

Climate