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Old 26-04-2003, 01:23 PM
P van Rijckevorsel
 
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Default potato & tomato soup

Timothy Horrigan schreef
Potato plants only rarely produce fruit but it does happen on occasion

(e.g., in NH this summer, which had exceptionally low rainfall.) The fruits
look like tomato fruits. They are (probably) not edible.

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For the record (repeat): potato fruits are not edible, nor are those of most
wild tomatos
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(The leaves and stems of the potato are not edible, hence the fruit is
unlikely to be edible either.)

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This is invalid reasoning. If a plant has a choice, stem and leafs are as
inedible as possible, since a plant likes to keep as much of its green parts
intact as it can.

When plants have noticeable fruits these are usually edible and are almost
certainly so when they are red. Otherwise dispersal by animals would not
work. Curiously it happens that Atropa bella-donna (same family) has black
fruits, edible to birds and some mammals put poisonous to humans, children
being especially at risk, the more so since the fruit somewhat resembles a
cherry.
PvR