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Solanum aethiopicum
Also called Chinese Scarlet Eggplant, Gilo, Kumba, Scarlet Eggplant, Shum, Tomato Fruit Eggplant
In Singapore: Scarlet Eggplant, Pumpkin Bush, Pumpkin Tree, Pumpkin-on-a-stick, Mini Pumpkins, Mock Tomato, 红茄 (Grown in Singapore)
Ethiopian nightshade (Solanum aethiopicum) is a warm-season shrubby vegetable grown for its leaves and fruit, mostly in Africa and Asia. Its key to success is plenty of heat, sun and steady moisture.
Solanum aethiopicum, the bitter tomato, Ethiopian eggplant, or nakati, is a fruiting plant of the genus Solanum mainly found in Asia and Tropical Africa. It is also known as Ethiopian nightshade, garden eggs, pumpkin-on-a-stick, and mock tomato. It is a popular vegetable in north-east India, and is known as khamen akhaba in Manipuri and samṭawk in Mizo. They are called Titay bii or simply bii in Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal, and are relished with meat, particularly pork. These names are a result of its varied morphology, with ripe fruit often looking like a cross between an eggplant and a tomato, which are also from Solanum. In fact, the Ethiopian eggplant was so much confused with the ordinary eggplant that this was considered by some a variety violaceum of S. aethiopicum.
The leaves of Solanum aethiopicum are eaten as a leaf vegetable and are actually more nutritious than the fruit.
Dwarf Tamarillo · Solanum acaule · Sodaapple nightshade · American black nightshade · Solanum arcanum · New Zealand nightshade · Solanum berthaultii · Tamarillo · Solanum brevicaule · Solanum cajanumense · Bitter Apple · Fuzzyfruit nightshade
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Solanum aethiopicum 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.
