The so-called fir-cone potatoes, which are elongated and provided with scales at more or less regular intervals, show also very clearly that the tuber is only a thickened branch with "eyes" set in regular order, as in an ordinary shoot.
An inflorescence has the form of a dichotomouslybranched cyme bearing small erect cones; those containing the female flowers attain the size of a fir-cone, and are scarlet in colour.