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Solanum aculeastrum
Also called Goat Bitter Apple, Bitter Apple, Soda Apple, Apple Of Sodom, Goat Apple, Lion's Claw, Poison Apple
Solanum aculeastrum is a thorny, highly branched shrub or small tree from tropical and southern Africa, grown mainly as a living hedge or barrier. It is poisonous and only distantly related to true apples, so it is not a garden fruit plant.
Solanum aculeastrum is commonly known as soda apple, sodaapple nightshade, goat apple, poison apple, or more ambiguously as "bitter-apple". It is a poisonous nightshade species from Africa and only distantly related to true apples. The term "soda apple" probably derives from "Sodom apple", modified due to the fruit's detergent properties.
Because of its dense growth and prickly nature, soda apple is used as a hedge and living barrier for containing livestock. It is often used as a soap replacement, as it is high in saponin. Traditional Zulu practices use the fruit - fresh, boiled, or charred - in herbal medicine to treat a wide variety of afflictions, including cancer, toothaches, and ringworm. The Taita tribe of southern Kenya use the ripe yellow fruit to treat paronychia. The roots are chewed and, the sap ingested to alleviate stomach aches.
Dwarf Tamarillo · Solanum acaule · Ethiopian nightshade · American black nightshade · Solanum arcanum · New Zealand nightshade · Solanum berthaultii · Tamarillo · Solanum brevicaule · Solanum cajanumense · Bitter Apple · Fuzzyfruit nightshade
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Solanum aculeastrum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
