The scarlet eggplant is a fruiting

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Solanum ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...

'', related to the tomato and eggplant. Its green fruit is known as Gilo (

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...

: Jiló). It was once treated as a distinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, ''Solanum gilo'', but it is now known to be a

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

group of '' Solanum aethiopicum'' (the Ethiopian Eggplant or ''nakati''). Gilo was brought to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

from West Africa during the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. It is still grown in West Africa, where it is sometimes called "garden eggs."Jiló Solanum gilo
/ref> Widely grown in Brazil, it is normally cooked as a

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

. The fruit turns orange-red when ripe, but is usually picked and cooked while it is green. In Mizo it is called ''samtawk''.

Varieties, taste and usage

Some varieties, like ''morro redondo,'' can have a bitter flavor which is an

acquired taste An acquired taste is an appreciation for something unlikely to be enjoyed by a person who has not had substantial exposure to it. It is the opposite of innate taste, which is the appreciation for things that are enjoyable by most persons without ...

. Solanum gilo 'Black Stream' has black stems and red or orange fruits; it is grown in France as an ornamental, and can be dried for winter decorations.

More information

*WFCR http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wfcr/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1522784/WFCR.Local.Features/Ethnic.Vegetables.in.the.Pioneer.Valley *University of Massachusetts http://www.umassvegetable.org/soil_crop_pest_mgt/articles_html/jilo.html

References

Eggplants {{vegetable-stub fr:Solanum gilo