About 9 million years ago, a natural inbreeding in the wild between tomato plants and a potato-like plant species in present-day South America gave way to what we know as the potato. Modern potato plants physically look almost identical to three potato-like species from Chile called Etuberosums. Phylogenetic analysis also shows that potato plants are actually more closely related to tomatoes than Etuberosums. Every potato species contained a mix of genetic material from both Etuberosum and tomato plants. This interbreeding is what gave rise to the earliest potato plants with tubers roughly 9 million years ago.