In article ,
Rusty Hinge wrote:
The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

When the berries are ripe they are perfectly edible, and are sweetish
and refreshing. Apart from the size of the plants and their fruits, I
can see no difference between black nightshade and 'garden
huckleberries', nor taste any.

IIRC there are two different plants commonly called huckleberry, and one
of them is indeed black nightshade or a variety of it. I grew it once,
but wasn't particularly enamoured of it. There's much nicer berries
around.

Both black nightshade and woody nightshade are Solanum, and isn't
Solanum melongela the aubergine?

Black nightshade is Solanum nigrum and woody nightshade is S. dulcamara.
Aubergines are horrid, nasty, pithy, flavourless things. Black
nightshade beats them by not being pithy.

If you have eaten only UK supermarket aubergines, then you may well
have that impression. It is, however, mistaken.

The reason that I don't eat black nightshade, despite being fairly
adventurous, is that the Solanaceae are notorious for having plants
with some parts of some varieties at some stages of development
after some treatments that are edible and good, and the same plant
under other conditions causing permanent damage.

I have not yet seen a trustworthy description of the conditions
under which black nightshade is safe to eat, though I have seen a
fair number of statements that the cooked, ripe berry is. But none
of them were clear the exact species and/or variety (and it is a
VERY widespread species, so geographic strains or growing conditions
could be important).

Tomato is Lycopersicum esculentum, but I've completely forgotten what
the potato is.

It's a starchy tuber you get in greengrocers' shops.

It is also Solanum tuberosum, and is quite commonly grown in UK
gardens.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.