''Solanum scabrum'', also known as garden huckleberry,
is an annual or perennial plant in the
nightshade
The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and orna ...
family. The geographic origin of the species is uncertain;
Linnaeus attributed it to
Africa, but it also occurs in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, and it is
naturalized
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
in many countries. In Africa it is cultivated as a leaf vegetable and for dye from the berries.
[Manoko,M.L.K.,van den Berg,R.G., Feron,R.M.C.,van der Weerden,G.M., Mariani,C.]
Genetic diversity of the African hexaploid species Solanum scabrum Mill. and Solanum nigrum L. (Solanaceae)
''Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution,'' Volume 55, Number 3, 409-418.
Description
An annual or short-lived perennial herb to 1 m tall, hairless or sparsely hairy. The leaves are usually ovate, 7–12 cm long and 5–8 cm wide, with petioles 1.5–7 cm long. The inflorescence is simple or sometimes branched with 9–12 flowers. The white
corolla
Corolla may refer to:
*Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit
*Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name
* Corolla (headgear), an ancient headdress in the form of a circlet or crown
* ''Corolla'' (gastropod), a genus of moll ...
is
stellate
Stellate, meaning star-shaped, may refer to:
* Stellate cell
* Stellate ganglion
* Stellate reticulum
* Stellate veins
* Stellate trichomes (hairs) on plants
* Stellate laceration or incision Wound#Open
* Stellate fan-shaped Espalier (one form ...
, 15–20 mm diam., and sometimes tinged purple and with yellow/green basal star. The berries are globular, 10–17 mm diam., purple-black. The seeds are 1.8–2.2 mm long, pale or stained purple.
Factsheet ''Solanum scabrum'', Flora of South Australia
/ref>
Food
''Solanum scabrum'' is grown as an edible leaf crop in Africa. It is the most intensively cultivated species for leaf cropping within the ''Solanum nigrum'' complex, and as such has undergone genetic selection by farmers for leaf size and other characteristics.[ Njama njama is a Cameroonian cuisine dish made with the leaves.
]
Dye
In Africa a stocky form of ''Solanum scabrum'' is cultivated as a dye crop using the ripe berries.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q24853233
scabrum
Taxa named by Philip Miller