''Solanum retroflexum'', commonly known as umsobo (

isiZulu Zulu (), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 12 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal of ...

), wonderberry or sunberry, is a historic heirloom fruiting shrub. Both common names are also used for the European black nightshade (''

Solanum nigrum ''Solanum nigrum'', the European black nightshade or simply black nightshade or blackberry nightshade, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Solanum'', native to Eurasia and introduced in the Americas, Australasia, and South Africa. Ripe ...

'') in some places, particularly where the latter species has been introduced, so care must be taken to distinguish them. It is sometimes called garden huckleberry, but that properly refers to the '' S. scabrum'' described by Philip Miller. Its old scientific name that is still often seen, ''Solanum × burbankii'', indicates a plant of

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

origin. It was supposedly bred by

Luther Burbank Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926) was an American botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science. He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank's varied creations incl ...

in the early 1900s as a hybrid of '' S. villosum'' and '' S. guineense'' but in fact ''S. retroflexum'' is a proper species of its own, while the supposed hybrid combination would not be viable due to different

ploidy Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell (biology), cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for Autosome, autosomal and Pseudoautosomal region, pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of mat ...

of ''S. guineense'' and ''S. villosum''. Plants are compact, typically growing to a height of , and may fruit at sizes as small as . The plant produces diminutive, dark blue-purple edible fruits that are bland in flavor and often combined with sugar in desserts. Green (unripe) fruits may be poisonous. The wonderberry shrub is an extremely easy-to-grow plant which is grown similarly to

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es. Seeds are sown in the summer in full or part sun. Fruit can be expected in 75 days.

References

retroflexum Edible Solanaceae Berries {{Solanales-stub