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Green Berry Nightshade Solanum Opacum Morelle Verte Seeds
Packet of 10+ organically grown seeds.
This fella is awesome and I will have it in my collection forever I hope.
Beautiful little plant with a really delicious fruit.
Related to the common Solanum nigrum(Blackberry nightshade), a weedy species found in most parks and gardens and first brought to Australia in the 1850’s.
This fella is quite different in that first of all, it is an Australian native, first recorded in surveys from the 1700’s, and one that you rarely see these days.
This scarcity could be due to a number of things, but I believe the lack of toxic alkaloids in the leaves leaves(in comparison to the more common relatives) leaves them vulnerable to attack by insects and introduced species like rabbits, sheep and cattle.
The often blasé attitude of land holders and commercial weed spray contractors, and its similar growth and habitat to the introduced weeds means that a quick cursory glace could just as easily seal its fate.
And its shorter overall growth means it is easily out-competed by grasses and more competitive introduced weeds.
Odds are really stacked against this fella I reckon, and in all the time I have spent exploring the bush I personally have never seen one in the wild. Not even once, and I spend a lot of hours out there!
This is despite the fact that only Tasmania officially recognizes them as a threatened species.
Now I have heard a lot of bush tucker plants described in a lot of different flowery glowing terms, and to be totally honest, most just are not as tasty as the modern commercially produced crops.
Not that they are bad, just bushtucker is generally less sugary sweet, and often has unusual after tastes, is sour, fibrous, or just a bit weird on the domesticated palate..
Not so at all with this fella!
It is fruity sweet, no fiber, the seeds are not even really detectable on the tongue, and it really just tastes like little blobs of tropical jelly.
Some folks say there is a spiciness to them, but that is only if they are under-ripe, and you shouldn’t eat them green anyway.
Just like the relatives tomatoes and potatoes, green fruit are slightly poisonous in large amounts.
Easy to tell when they are ripe anyway, as they turn into little glassy jewels.
The seeds become clearly visible on the inside through the skin, and the fruit turns from opaque matt green, to glossy glassy green, then finally a golden yellow orange tint.
My camera no longer zooms as I dropped it one too many times, but trust me when I say my pictures just don’t do them justice.
They look beautiful as an ornamental alone, lots of little flowers, and pretty little fruit.
Easy to grow, I am on the second generation(*EDIT*8th generation) now, and have started selecting for fruit size, eating only the smaller ones(which is hard), saving seeds only from the biggest fruiting plants.
In a few years I hope to increase the size, and who knows, maybe this is the start of a commercial selection.
They do look and taste amazing, and they beat the humble blueberry by a mile in my books!
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chemicals, no nasties, no problems!!!
