Eggplant, aubergine or brinjal is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Solanum melongena is grown worldwide for its edible fruit.
Solanum is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant. It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae, comprising around 1,500 species. It also contains the so-called horse nettles, as well as numerous plants cultivated for their ornamental flowers and fruit.
Solanum carolinense, the Carolina horsenettle, is not a true nettle, but a member of the Solanaceae, or nightshade family. It is a perennial herbaceous plant, native to the southeastern United States, though its range has expanded throughout much of temperate North America. The plant is an invasive in parts of Europe, Asia, and Australia. The stem and undersides of larger leaf veins are covered with prickles.
Thai eggplant is the name for several varieties of eggplant used in Southeast Asian cuisines, most often of the eggplant species Solanum melongena. They are also cultivated in India and Sri Lanka and feature in Sri Lankan cuisine. These golf ball sized eggplants are commonly used in Thai cuisine, Indonesian cuisine, and in Cambodian Cuisine. Some of the cultivars in Thailand are Thai Purple, Thai Green, Thai Yellow, and Thai White.
Solanum pseudocapsicum is a nightshade species with mildly poisonous fruit. It is commonly known as the Jerusalem cherry, Madeira winter cherry, or, ambiguously, "winter cherry". These perennials can be grown decoratively as house plants, but in some areas of South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand it is regarded as a weed.
Solanum aethiopicum, the bitter tomato, Ethiopian eggplant, or nakati, is a fruiting plant of the genus Solanum mainly found in Asia and Tropical Africa. It is also known as Ethiopian nightshade, garden eggs, pumpkin-on-a-stick, and mock tomato. It is a popular vegetable in north-east India, and is known as khamen akhaba in Manipuri and samṭawk in Mizo. They are called Titay bii or simply bii in Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal and are relished with meat, particularly pork. These names are a result of its varied morphology, with ripe fruit often looking like a cross between an eggplant and a tomato, which are also from Solanum. In fact, the Ethiopian eggplant was so much confused with the ordinary eggplant that this was considered by some a variety violaceum of S. aethiopicum.
Solanum nigrum, the European black nightshade or simply black nightshade or blackberry nightshade, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Solanum, native to Eurasia and introduced in the Americas, Australasia, and South Africa. Ripe berries and cooked leaves of edible strains are used as food in some locales, and plant parts are used as a traditional medicine. A tendency exists in literature to incorrectly refer to many of the other "black nightshade" species as "Solanum nigrum".
Solanum mammosum, commonly known as nipplefruit, fox head, cow's udder, or apple of Sodom, is an inedible Pan-American tropical fruit. The plant is grown for ornamental purposes, in part because of the distal end of the fruit's resemblance to a human breast, while the proximal end looks like a cow's udder. It is an annual in the family Solanaceae, and part of the genus Solanum, making the plant a relative of the eggplant, tomato, and potato. This poisonous fruit is native to South America, but has been naturalized in Southern Mexico, Greater Antilles, Central America, and the Caribbean. The plant adapts well to most soils, but thrives in moist, loamy soil.
Solanum muricatum is a species of evergreen shrub native to South America and grown for its sweet edible fruit.
Solanum torvum, also known as pendejera, turkey berry, devil's fig, pea eggplant, platebrush or susumber, is a bushy, erect and spiny perennial plant used horticulturally as a rootstock for eggplant. Grafted plants are very vigorous and tolerate diseases affecting the root system, thus allowing the crop to continue for a second year.
Solanum robustum, the shrubby nightshade, is a thorny perennial shrub native to northeastern South America of the genus Solanum and is therefore related to the potato and tomato plants. A medium shrub, the plant may grow 4 to 8 feet with velvety leaves and stems due to dense stellate trichomes present on all faces of the plant. Strong, straight or recurved flattened prickles up to 12 millimeters long may be found along the stems. The leaves grow 6 to 10 inches long and feature nine angled ridges along their perimeter. S. robustum blooms between late spring and mid fall with small clusters of white to yellow-white star shaped inflorescence followed by white or yellowish marble sized berries. S. robustum contains various tropane alkaloids in its leaves, fruit and stems and therefore should not be consumed.
Leucinodes orbonalis, the eggplant fruit and shoot borer or brinjal fruit and shoot borer, is a moth species in the genus Leucinodes described by Achille Guenée in 1854. Its native distribution is in the tropical and subtropical parts of Australia and Asia, where it is recorded from Pakistan, Nepal, India, including the Andaman Islands, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, and Indonesia (Java). It has also been intercepted from fruit imports in the U.S.A., the Netherlands, Denmark and Great Britain, where it was also reported from the wild. A taxonomic revision of the Leucinodes species of Sub-Saharan Africa concluded that L. orbonalis is currently not present in Africa, and that previous records of this species were misidentifications of previously undescribed species.
Solanum caripense is a species of evergreen shrub native to South America and grown for its edible fruit.
Solanum candidum is a species of evergreen shrub native to South America and occasionally grown for its edible fruit.
Solanum opacum is a species of flowering plant in the family Solanaceae. It is referred to by the common names green berry nightshade, or morelle verte and is a sprawling annual native to eastern Australia. It is part of the black nightshade group of Solanum species.
Solanum macrocarpon otherwise known as the African eggplant : añara), Surinamese eggplant or Vietnamese eggplant is a plant of the family Solanaceae. S. macrocarpon is a tropical perennial plant that is closely related to the eggplant. S. macrocarpon originated from West Africa, but is now widely distributed in Central and East Africa. The plant also grows in the Caribbean, South America, and some parts of Southeast Asia. S. macrocarpon is widely cultivated for its use as a food, its medicinal purposes, and as an ornamental plant.
Solanum pachyandrum, known as bombona, is a spine-forming vine of the Solanum genus. It is native to southwestern Ecuador and northwestern Peru where the large juicy fruit is commonly eaten and considered a treat by children. Although the plant has been known and consumed by the indigenous people of that land, it was only published scientifically in 1914 by German botanist Friedrich August Georg Bitter.
Solanum cerasiferum is a species of plant in the nightshade family. It is native to tropical Africa.
Solanum esuriale is a species of perennial herbaceous plant native to Australia.
Solanum petrophilum, commonly known as rock nightshade or prickly nightshade, is an Australian native perennial herbaceous plant that belongs to the family Solanaceae. Solanaceae has a worldwide distribution and also contains important food species such as the tomato, peppers, and potatoes.
