Flowers, Food + Forage

solanum melanocerasum on Flickr.

Garden huckleberry. Fruit can be boiled down with generous amounts of sugar to make a substitute for blueberries. Solanum burbankii, the sunberry or wonderberry, is naturally much sweeter than garden huckleberry.

Seen at the University of Washington Medicinal Herb Garden.

dry solanum atropurpureum leaf on Flickr.

solanum carolinense 2 on Flickr.

“Though there are other horsenettle nightshades, Solanum carolinense is the species most widely known simply as “the horsenettle”. It is also known as Radical Weed or Sand Brier (or “briar”), while more ambiguous names are “bull nettle”, “tread-softly” and “apple of Sodom”. Names like Devil’s Tomato and particularly “wild tomato” are better avoided, as the fruits of Carolina Horsenettle are poisonous and may kill a human who eats of them.”

bittersweet nightshade fruit on Flickr.

Solanum dulcamara, bittersweet nightshade.

“Although this is not the same plant as deadly nightshade or belladonna (Atropa belladonna, an uncommon and extremely poisonous plant), bittersweet nightshade is somewhat poisonous and has caused loss of livestock and pet poisoning and, more rarely, sickness and even death in children who have eaten the berries. Fortunately, bittersweet nightshade has a strong, unpleasant odor, so most animals will avoid it, and poisonings from this plant are not very frequent.

“The entire plant contains solanine, the same toxin found in green potatoes and other members of the nightshade family, and it also contains a glycoside called dulcamarine, similar in structure and effects to atropine, one of the toxins found in deadly nightshade. The toxin amount varies with soil, light, climate and growth stage. Ripe fruits are generally less toxic than the leaves and unripe berries, but even ripe berries can be poisonous.”

sweetly mistaken tomatoes 2 on Flickr.

blackest huckleberries on Flickr.

Solanum melanocerasum, garden huckleberry, a member of the nightshade family of plants

malevolent stems and leaves on Flickr.

Solanum atropurpureum in the basement, protected from the cold

tasty tamarillos on Flickr.

“Solanum betaceum is a small tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Solanaceae. It is best known as the species that bears the tamarillo, an egg-shaped edible fruit. Other names include tree tomato and tomate de árbol. In Indonesia, it is known as terong Belanda or Dutch eggplant… The tamarillo is native to the Andes of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, and Bolivia.

“The fruit is eaten by scooping the flesh from a halved fruit, but in New Zealand children palpate the ripe fruit until it is soft then bite off the stem end and squeeze the flesh directly into their mouths. When lightly sugared and cooled, the flesh makes a refreshing breakfast dish.

“They give a unique flavor when made into a compote, or added to stews (e.g. Boeuf Bourguignon), hollandaise, chutneys, and curries. They are also tasty and decorative in, for example, radicchio salads. Appetizing desserts using this fruit include bavarois and combined with apples in a strudel.

“In Colombia, Ecuador and Sumatra, fresh tamarillos are frequently blended together with water and sugar to make a juice. It is also available as a commercially pasteurized purée.

“The flesh of the tamarillo is tangy and mildly sweet, and may be compared to kiwifruit, tomato, or passion fruit. The skin and the flesh near it have an unpleasant bitter taste, and usually aren’t eaten raw.”

Flower Break by zxgirl on Flickr.

Solanum pyracanthum by Quentin6 on Flickr.

Note: proper nomenclature is Solanum pyracanthon, not S. pyracanthos or S. pyracanthum.

“Solanum pyracanthon, also known as the Porcupine Tomato, is an evergreen shrub native to tropical Madagascar and the islands of the western Indian Ocean of the genus Solanum, a diverse and cosmopolitan family of plants with over 1,500 members including the tomato, potato and nightshades. The plant contains various toxic tropane alkaloids in its leaves, stem and fruit and therefore should be considered dangerous to humans. S. pyracanthon is perhaps most distinguished by a profusion of strong, straight fluorescent orange thorns which occupy the stems and leaves of the plant, giving it a foreboding appearance.”

Solanum pyracanthos 2 by scott.zona on Flickr.

Oh my goodness, S. atropurpureum has an orange-thorned cousin…