the 1500s, the Spanish went to South America to There, they found people eating potatoes. The people of in brought America had been eating potatoes for 7,000 years! The Spanish the potato back to Europe with them. people in Europe did not like this strange vegetable. Some people thought that if you ate potatoes your skin would look like the skin of a potato. Other people could not believe that you ate the underground part of the plant, so they ate the instead. This made them sick because there is poison in the leaves flowers. At one time in France, leaves. Others grew potatoes for their potato flowers were one of the most expensive flowers. Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis flowers in her hair.