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Hairy Fruity Leaved Nightshade Solanum Sarrachoides Seeds
Packet of 40+ very rarely available seeds!
I have a bit of thing for Solanum species, such an interesting, variable and beautiful bunch of plants.
The most commonly talked about relatives are the tomatoes and potatoes, but there are also a bunch of mildly to deadly toxic relatives too.
This ones edibility is a mystery for a few reasons.
Now there are several references to folks eating the fully ripe fruit without any dramas, and I myself have eaten one fruit in the name of science.
Tasted like ground cherry x greenberry, but no pineapple after taste.
BUT, I only ate one, and I reckon it was probably a bad idea, and I do not recommend you folks eat them yourself.
Treat this fella as an interesting ornamental, definitely not as a food crop.
WHY?
First reason is that everyone is different and you may die. That’s a drama I really don’t need, so if your plan is to eat them, buy the seeds elsewhere please.
Seriously.
The second and equally important reason is ID.
I strongly believe what I have is Solanum sarrachoides.
BUT, I do not know what other folks were eating when they SAID it was Solanum sarrachoides as I was not there, and dare I say, neither were you.
Mis-identification in Solanum, especially wild forms is SUPER SUPER COMMON.
The experts do their best, but are often wrong.
For example, Solanum physalifolium has been widely but incorrectly known as Solanum sarrachoides , a completely different species. Therefore Solanum sarrachoides is considered a noxious weed in the US states of Kansas and Michigan, when infact it is Solanum physalifolium causing the weed issues!
Here is a bit of text I pinched from Wikipedia that will give you an idea of what I mean.
“The scientific name Solanum sarrachoides was long misused for a different species, Solanum physalifolium, by various authors. The original misidentified Solanum sarrachoides were held to be the variety Solanum physalifolium var. nitidibaccatum (also treated as distinct species, Solanum nitidibaccatum’). The actual Solanum sarrachoides was also considered a variety of Solanum tweedianum, under this plant’s obsolete name Solanum atriplicifolium, as established by Gilli based on Nees.”
Clear as mud hey…
So yeah. Please don’t eat it, but do grow it, as it looks cool and it has an interesting and convoluted history. The berries stay green even when fully ripe, and the white flowers are very dainty.
Germination without treatment was slow taking a few months, but at a great %. Very viable, just slow.
That’s the method I recommend.
Germination tests with GA3 took only 4days, and using smoke it took about 3weeks to get started. Very reliable easy to grow plant.
Another beautiful little ornamental for the collection.
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!
