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Solanum aviculare
Also called Kangaroo Apple, Poroporo, Pam Plum
Solanum aviculare, known as kangaroo apple or New Zealand nightshade, is an erect evergreen shrub from eastern Australia and New Zealand that grows up to about 4 m. It is grown outdoors in mild, frost-free climates and is valued for its blue-violet flowers and orange-red berries.
Solanum aviculare, commonly known as kangaroo apple or New Zealand nightshade, is a species of flowering plant in the family Solanaceae and native to New Zealand and the east coast of Australia.
Solanum aviculare is native to Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. In Australia it occurs in eastern Queensland, New South Wales (including Lord Howe Island) and Victoria, where it grows in rainforest, wet forest and rainforest margins on clay soils. Associated Australian species include the rainforest plants golden sassafras (Doryphora sassafras), black wattle (Acacia melanoxylon), and lillypilly (Acmena smithii), and wet forest species brown barrel (Eucalyptus fastigata) and turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera). The species occurs on both North and South Islands and Chatham Island of New Zealand where it usually grows in open shrubland up to 400 m (1,300 ft) above sea level. Naturalised populations are found in South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia, but the species is possibly extinct on Norfolk Island.
The fruit when unripe was traditionally boiled by Indigenous communities in Australia to allow for its use as an oral contraceptive for women.
Dwarf Tamarillo · Solanum acaule · Sodaapple nightshade · Ethiopian nightshade · American black nightshade · Solanum arcanum · Solanum berthaultii · Tamarillo · Solanum brevicaule · Solanum cajanumense · Bitter Apple · Fuzzyfruit nightshade
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Solanum aviculare 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.
