In article ,
Jaques d'Alltrades writes:
| The message
| from "Franz Heymann" contains these words:
|
| How are you going to verify that your proposed breeding plans do not
| result in the introduction of a poisonous content into the berries?
|
| How can you ever? Black nightshade isn't poisonous - well, no more
| poisonous than a tomato. The green parts are as poisonous as a tomato
| plant, likewise the berries as deadly as green tomatoes. The Garden
| Huckleberry is in the same position AFAIK, the green parts are mildly
| poisonous.
|
| Someone at Kew was disturbed by my mentioning that I ate Black
| nightshade berries. She was told by a colleague that this was common
| practice.

Sigh. A previous time this came up, I investigated fairly carefully
and found enough anomalies to make me very suspicious, and someone
else later confirmed that I was right to be. This is the situation.

Black nightshade is a very widespread plant, is very variable, and
its edibility varies considerably with the variety, growing conditions,
part of plant eaten (yes, the leaves are, in some places), ripeness
of fruit when picked, treatment (e.g. cooking) etc. In this, it is
not markedly different from many other tropical food plants.

With such plants, it is likely to be very easy to breed poisonousness
back into a variety bred for edibility. Equally well, it is easy to
exaggerate this - as you point out, the same is true of the garden
huckleberry, which is probably just a cultivated form. Oh, and the
same is true of almonds!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.