G'day All,
I too am familiar with a weed called potato vine, and a mongrel of a
weed it is. It has thick green leaves like a succulent, with hundreds of
rough spud like growths forming along the stem at the nodes. When they drop
they self propagate and off you go again. When you spray it, it only dies
down to the next node,and when you cut it, the thick leaves refuse to
dehydrate,growing like cuttings, and all the spuds fall of and start again.
I've been told by one experienced bush regenerator that in one instance, a
land fill area, that it came back up from over four meters below
ground.Apparently it was a popular plant to grow over the old
'thunderboxes', as it was quick, not unpleasant looking, gave good shade and
shelter for the 'throne', the cows and 'roos largely left it alone, and
finally the spud was used as an instant cure for constipation. I believe it
is on many banned weed lists and I probably won't remember its proper name
until I send this post.
It doesn't look anything like Solanaceae, but in regard to Chookie's post, I
understand that the toxin in green spuds is closely related to the
'nightshade', and tobacco is toxic if ingested rather than chewed or smoked
(( or you could say it just kills you quicker that way :-), and chewing
tobacco isn't swallowed, just to complicate things).


China
Wingham
NSW