Cultivar · Potato cultivar
Yukon Gold
Yukon Gold is a yellow-fleshed potato bred at the University of Guelph and released in 1980, notable as one of the first widely marketed yellow-fleshed varieties in North America.
Record
Cultivar / variety- Variety of
- Potato
- Botanical taxon
- Solanum tuberosum
- Type
- Cultivar
- Breeding method
- Cross-breeding
- Origin
- Ontario, Canada (University of Guelph), Canada
- Released
- 1980
- Breeder / institution
- University of Guelph, Ontario (breeding by G. Johnston and colleagues)
- Registry status
- Historical · as of 2026-07-12
- Registries
- USDA GRIN-Global / National Plant Germplasm System · United States / Global · as of 2026-07-12Maintained as germplasm in the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System; a genebank holding, not a marketing registration.
- Adaptation
- Grown as a cool-season crop like potato generally; its earlier-to-mid maturity suits temperate maincrop production. Sensitive to frost and to heat during tuber bulking. Suited to the loose, well-drained soils preferred by potato generally; no unusual soil requirement is documented here.
- Intended use
- Table (boiling, baking, mashing), Roasting
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.
Yukon Gold is a yellow-fleshed potato cultivar developed at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and released in 1980. It became widely known as one of the first yellow-fleshed varieties to be marketed on a large scale in North America, where white-fleshed potatoes had previously dominated the fresh market.
The variety has thin, smooth yellow-buff skin marked by shallow pink eyes and firm yellow flesh. It is treated as an all-purpose potato, used for boiling, mashing, baking, and roasting, and its distinctive flesh colour contributed to broad consumer recognition.
Background and identity
Yukon Gold was produced through deliberate cross-breeding in the potato programme at the University of Guelph and released in 1980. It is frequently cited as a landmark in popularising yellow-fleshed potatoes with North American consumers, a trait long common in some European and Andean varieties.
- Flesh colour
- Yellow
- Skin
- Thin, smooth yellow-buff with shallow pink eyes
- Cooking character
- All-purpose; suited to boiling, mashing, baking, and roasting
Cultivation and use
As with potato generally, Yukon Gold is grown as a cool-season crop and is sensitive to frost and to heat during tuber bulking. Its earlier-to-mid maturity fits temperate maincrop systems. Culinary performance 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.
| Register | Status | Species as published | Register reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| CanadaVariety registrationPermission to market | National Registration | PotatoPotato (Tuber) — the register publishes a crop kind, not a botanical name | 2047 |
| IrelandNational list entry — agricultural speciesPermission to market | Registered | Solanum tuberosum L. | NLI/AGR/IE/SOLAN_TUB/657 |
| United KingdomNational list entryPermission to market | Awarded GB and NI variety listings | SOLANUM TUBEROSUM L. | 4/415 |
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.
Scope & limitations
Geographic scope: Developed in Canada and widely grown in North America; also grown elsewhere. Agronomic and culinary behaviour is region- and season-specific.
Climate context: Cool-season temperate crop; early-to-maincrop maturity.
- Cooking and agronomic behaviour is region- and season-specific and varies with storage.
- Any historical variety-registration in Canada or elsewhere is jurisdiction- and date-specific and is not asserted as current here.
Sources
This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.
- [1]GRIN-Global / National Plant Germplasm System (opens in a new tab)Authoritative
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Cited for: Solanum tuberosum classification and germplasm context
- Type:
- Official registry
- Jurisdiction:
- United States / Global
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12
- High
Cited for: Potato genetic resources and variety documentation
- Type:
- Research institute
- Jurisdiction:
- Global
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12
- Moderate
Cited for: General background on the variety (secondary)
- Type:
- Reference database
- Jurisdiction:
- Global
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12