Saturday, November 7, 2009

Solanum mammosum, Nipple Fruit....was it worth it?


I bought a seedling at the Philadelphia Flower Show and this is what its grown  into. Of course you can't tell from the picture that the plant is ~5 feet high and three feet across, nor can you tell that these fruit aren't edible. They aren't. And they don't dry! They're just decorative?...for a little while.

I'm not going to go all Wilt Chamberlain and claim that I've seen? 20,000  (40,000?) nipples, but between National Geographic, the peep shows (just kidding), and my own limited experiences I've seen a few and these fruit don't bear any particular resemblance to any that I can, at present, call to mind. Still....I'm old and I've forgotten many things.

It's surely an interesting plant and I'm glad to have grown it. I'm going to save seed, and Brad tells me that he will too but I suspect neither of us will be growing it again any time soon!

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