(ORDO NEWS) — The strange story of a huge vegetable thought to be the world‘s largest potato took an unexpected turn when DNA testing revealed it was actually just a giant pumpkin.
Nicknamed “Dug” by its proud owners, the notorious “fake potato” made headlines back in November when it was discovered in Colin and Donna Craig-Brown’s garden in New Zealand.
At a whopping 17 pounds, this suspicious potato appears to have broken the record for the world’s largest potato. However, before Doug was given the title, the Guinness World Records team demanded a DNA analysis of the vegetable to prove its authenticity, and this strange request turned out to be quite astute.
Over the weekend, the Craig-Browns received a letter from Guinness saying that the DNA test had shocked them that Dug was actually a “species of pumpkin.”
Thus, much to the chagrin of the owners, the claims of the vegetable to be the largest potato in the world were invalidated. For his part, Colin expressed bewilderment at the genetic revelation, remarking:
“I’m trying to explain rationally how it happened.” His guess is that the seedling from which the giant vegetable emerged was somehow crossed with a pumpkin. “That’s the only reasonable conclusion I can come to,” he said, “I can’t think of any other really reasonable way that this could have happened.”
While he acknowledged that Dug was obviously not a potato, Colin still has some questions about the DNA test results.
“The most puzzling thing is why did it grow so big,” he asks, “and why does it taste and look like potatoes?”
At the same time, he noted that the rather strict requirements of Guinness ultimately prevented the possibility of error, since “I could have been awarded a world record for something that was not there.”
Coming so close to winning the title, Colin stated that he now intends to repeat the record using “all the knowledge and scientific know-how that I have accumulated.”
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