10-11-2005, 11:03 PM
|
|
|
Any idea which plant?
The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:
In article ,
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
As with black nightshade, there are conflicting reports of its
edibility. In the case of black nightshade, there are reliable
claims that at least some strains, grown under at least some
conditions, are poisonous when ripe.
You've said this before, and I've yet to see any evidence of it, and Kew
confirms without any caveat that they are edible and widely eaten.
Which does not negate my point. I found it when looking up the
edibility of Physalis species in several books and papers that
described the edibility of the Solanaceae generally.
I've been noshing them since I discovered (some time in the '60s) that
they were not poisonous, and from then have eaten them from the north of
Scotland to Dartmoor without ever having suffered any ill-effects.
A piffling geographic range, and an even smaller varietal one. It
is a global species.
They are intermixed and spread worldwide quite rapidly by some migrating
birds.
IME such variation of toxicity in a species is restricted to fungi.
No way. You can start with yams, almonds and French beans. In all
cases, the forms that we eat have been selected and bred for low
toxin levels. Toxicity is as variable as any other characteristic;
some plants will be fairly constant; others will be highly variable.
Maybe, but selective breeding is cheating - you can selectively breed
wolves into all sorts of silly shapes and sizes.
--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/
|