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Jaltomata Procumbens Purple Fruited Creeping False Holly Seeds
Packet of 20+ home grown seeds!
This fella is a great little space filler and to my eye the plant reminds me of a Tomatillo or a small dwarf tomato bush.
Ideal for pots and a quick growing and attractive space filler where other plants have died or been munched by critters. The abundant black purple fruits are tasty and a lot like a mildly sweet grape. They are eaten as is as well as often being used for jams, jelly, salsa and sauces.
I strongly believe(based on nothing)a lot of the original USA folks who made “huckleberry pie” from members of the Solanum nigrum complex back in the day, were actually using this fella… It has a small hat on every fruit like the unrelated Atropa belladonna and that could be where the “deadly nightshade” confusion originated from too.
Solanum lack this hat like calyx and they really look nothing like Atropa, whereas if you squint this fella sort of does, has much bigger fruit than most Solanum, and they taste a hell of a lot better too.
That’s my theory. Many “Huckleberries” were Jaltomato species not the Solanum nigrum complex, and Jaltomato looks like Atropa so it was the original plant to get incorrectly christened “Deadly nightshade”. Later on the name migrated across to the Solanum nigrum complex.
Anyway, this is not deadly nightshade or Atropa, and it tastes a lot better than most Solanum nigrum complex.
It’s got a small green flower, makes a sprawling bush about 50cm x 50cm, handles full sun or heavy shade, is a native of Southern USA, Central America, Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela, and is prized as a volunteer edible weed bushtucker of sorts everywhere it grows.
Common names include Chuchu, Climbing Jaltomata, Creeping Jaltomata, Creeping Nightshade, Earthberry, Ground Cherry, Ground Nightshade, Jaltomate, Jaltomate de Tierra, Low growing Nightshade, Low Nightshade, Mexican Nightshade, Perennial Nightshade, Prostrate Nightshade, Small Jaltomata, Snakeberry, Spreading Jaltomata, Trailing Jaltomata, Wild Jaltomata, and Wild Tomato.
Well worth having in the collection.
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!
