Solanum pseudocapsicum

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Solanum pseudocapsicum
Solanum pseudocapsicum04.jpg
Fruiting plant
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Genus: Solanum
Species:
S. pseudocapsicum
Binomial name
Solanum pseudocapsicum
L.
Dried fruits with seeds of Solanum pseudocapsicum. Solanum pseudocapsicum MHNT.BOT.2011.3.92.jpg
Dried fruits with seeds of Solanum pseudocapsicum.

Solanum pseudocapsicum is a nightshade species with mildly poisonous fruit. [1] It is commonly known as the Jerusalem cherry, [2] 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.

Overview

The plant is perennial in zones up to USDA 8. Native to Peru and Ecuador, they can survive frosts and cold weather. They generally live up to 10 years, producing fruit usually in their second or third year, and every year after that. They are congeners of tomatoes and the fruit is extremely similar to cherry tomatoes in taste and texture, and are therefore easily confused with them.

The Jerusalem cherry's poison is primarily solanocapsine, which is similar to other alkaloids found in their genus, such as solanine. Although the toxin is poisonous, it is generally not life-threatening to humans. It may cause gastric problems, including vomiting and gastroenteritis as referenced in the obsolete scientific name S. ipecacuanha (roughly "ipecac nightshade"). [3]

Jerusalem cherries are possibly poisonous to cats [4] and some birds. [5] Though Jerusalem cherry is distributed by certain birds in the wild – both where native and where introduced, e.g., in Australia by the pied currawong (Strepera graculina) – most popular pet birds, namely parrots and relatives, are not immune to its poison.

Taxonomy

Supposedly, the plant described as Solanum capsicastrum and called false Jerusalem cherry is a closely related but distinct species, and the trade name "winter cherry" is also held to apply to this exclusively. It is said to be recognizable by more mediocre size, and/or a greyish hue to the foliage and/or stems, and/or fruit that have a pronounced yellow hue when unripe and whose pulp is not or less poisonous (though the seeds still are, making the whole fruit still inedible), and/or higher frost hardiness. But these supposed differences are inconsistently given in various horticultural sources, and no botanical source has in recent times distinguished between the two. Indeed, these taxa are now generally held to refer to the same species, and the "false Jerusalem cherry", if it is at all distinguishable, seems to be a chemotype at best, or just a motley collection of cultivars. [6]

The entire list of now-invalid synonyms of S. pseudocapsicum is long, and many homonyms are included within it: [6]

S. pseudocapsicum has large
flowers, typically borne singly. The synonym S. singuliflorum and the homonym S. uniflorum refer to this. Solanum pseudocapsicum3.jpg
S. pseudocapsicum has large flowers, typically borne singly. The synonym S. singuliflorum and the homonym S. uniflorum refer to this.
S. diffusumRoxb. ex Wall. is S. virginianum L..S. diffusum ssp. miozygumBitter and S. diffusum var. miozygum(Bitter) J.F.Macbr. are S. ternatum .
Not to be confused with S. angustifolium Mill..
S. diphyllumSessé & Moc. is S. nudum . S. diphyllumSw. ex Dunal in DC. is an undeterminable Lycianthes species. S. diphyllumOsbeck is a nomen nudum .
S. karsteniiA.Braun & Bouché is S. felinum .
S. lucidumMoric. is Aureliana fasciculata (Vell.) Sendtn..
S. microcarpum Cerv. ex Lag. is S. pubigerum Dunal. S. microcarpumPav. ex Dunal in DC. is S. corymbosum Jacq..
S. uniflorum Meyen ex Nees is S. elaeagnifolium Cav.. S. uniflorumDunal in Poir. and S. uniflorumSessé & Moc. are Lycianthes mociniana (Dunal) Bitter. S. uniflorumLag. is an undeterminable Lycianthes species.
The species' variable habitus has given rise to many supposed varieties. Aci biber.JPG
The species' variable habitus has given rise to many supposed varieties.

As can be seen by the "false Jerusalem cherry" case, several presumed forms, subspecies and varieties have been described of S. pseudocapsicum. But these are generally also not considered to be taxonomically distinct today: [6]

Not to be confused with S. parvifolium .
Not to be confused with S. sendtnerianum .

A Jerusalem cherry plant is given as a Christmas gift in Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1935 novel Mistress Pat . It is believed to be a symbol of bad luck, a notion that is apparently confirmed when the Gardiner family's Christmas celebrations go haywire.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Solanum</i> Genus of flowering plants

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.

<i>Solanum mauritianum</i> Species of tree

Solanum mauritianum is a small tree or shrub native to South America, including Northern Argentina, Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Its common names include earleaf nightshade, woolly nightshade, flannel weed, bugweed, tobacco weed, tobacco bush, wild tobacco and kerosene plant.

<i>Cyphomandra</i> Extinct genus of flowering plants

Cyphomandra was a formerly accepted genus in the plant family Solanaceae. It used to contain about 35 species native to the Americas from Mexico southwards to Northern Argentina.

<i>Solanum aculeastrum</i> Species of plant

Solanum aculeastrum is commonly known as soda apple, sodaapple nightshade, goat apple, poison apple, or more ambiguously as "bitter-apple". It is a poisonous nightshade species from Africa and only distantly related to true apples. The term "soda apple" probably derives from "Sodom apple", modified due to the fruit's detergent properties.

<i>Solanum mammosum</i> Species of plant

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.

<i>Solanum torvum</i> Species of flowering plant

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.

<i>Solanum linnaeanum</i> Species of plant

Solanum linnaeanum is a nightshade species known as devil's apple and, in some places where it is introduced, apple of Sodom. The latter name is also used for other nightshades and entirely different plants elsewhere, in particular the poisonous milkweed Calotropis procera.

<i>Solanum elaeagnifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Solanum elaeagnifolium, the silverleaf nightshade or silver-leaved nightshade, is a species of plant in the nightshade family native to North and South America. It is common in parts of southwestern USA, and sometimes weed of western North America. Other common names include prairie berry, silverleaf nettle, white horsenettle or silver nightshade. In South Africa it is known as silver-leaf bitter-apple or satansbos. More ambiguous names include "bull-nettle", "horsenettle" and the Spanish "trompillo".

<i>Lycianthes</i> Genus of flowering plants

Lycianthes is a genus of plants from the nightshade family (Solanaceae), found in both the Old World and the New World, but predominantly in the latter. It contains roughly 150 species, mostly from tropical America, with 35-40 species in Asia and the Pacific.

<i>Solanum sisymbriifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Solanum sisymbriifolium is commonly known as vila-vila, sticky nightshade, red buffalo-bur, the fire-and-ice plant, litchi tomato, or Morelle de Balbis.

<i>Solanum capsicoides</i> Species of flowering plant

Solanum capsicoides, the cockroach berry, known as polohauai'i in Polynesia, is a flowering plant in the family Solanaceae. It is native to eastern Brazil but naturalized in other tropical regions, where it sometimes becomes an invasive weed.

Solanum ternatum is a species of plant in the family Solanaceae. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

<i>Solanum paniculatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Solanum paniculatum, commonly known as jurubeba, is a nightshade common in almost all of Brazil. It is used as a medicinal plant and has a bitter taste.

<i>Solanum lanceolatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Solanum lanceolatum, with the common names orangeberry nightshade and lanceleaf nightshade, is a species of nightshade. It is native to regions of South America, including the Cerrado ecoregion of the Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, primarily in Brazil.

<i>Solanum diphyllum</i> Species of flowering plant

Solanum diphyllum, commonly known as the twoleaf nightshade, is a species of nightshade native to the Americas. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its clusters of dark green round fruits that turn a bright yellow when ripe.

References

  1. "Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa" - Watt & Brandwijk (E&S Livingstone, 1962)
  2. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Solanum pseudocapsicum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  3. D. G. Spoerke & S. C. Smolinske (1990). Toxicity of Houseplants. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
  4. "Plants and your cat". Cat Fanciers' Association. December 1997. Archived from the original on March 26, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2008.
  5. "Bird safety: poisonous and safe plants for birds". Peteducation.com. 1997. Retrieved September 29, 2008.
  6. 1 2 3 "Solanum pseudocapsicum". Solanaceae Source. July 2004. Retrieved September 29, 2008.
  7. Solanum pseudocapsicum at the Royal Horticultural Society website. Retrieved 26 September 2015

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