Last spring a strange plant appeared in our vegetable garden. It had large
furry leaves, and grew very rapidly. I was intrigued, so I left there to see
what would happen. It is now a very substantial plant -- more than two metres
high -- and has developed a number of heads of solanum type flowers. You can
see some photos of it at: http://www.corybas.com/Technical/Mystery_plant.htm

It reminds me rather of tobacco, but a Greek friend tells us that it is a type
of eggplant, and that if we had had it grafted we would have an ample supply of
eggplants.

Can anyone cast any further light on what it is?


James McNangle

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 18:21:37 +1000, James McNangle
wrote:

Last spring a strange plant appeared in our vegetable garden. It had large
furry leaves, and grew very rapidly. I was intrigued, so I left there to see
what would happen. It is now a very substantial plant -- more than two metres
high -- and has developed a number of heads of solanum type flowers. You can
see some photos of it at: http://www.corybas.com/Technical/Mystery_plant.htm

It reminds me rather of tobacco, but a Greek friend tells us that it is a type
of eggplant, and that if we had had it grafted we would have an ample supply of
eggplants.

Can anyone cast any further light on what it is?


James McNangle

I'm afraid you are not going to get any eggplants. I think the plant
is the South American weed Solanum mauritianum or woolly nightshade.

http://www.ebop.govt.nz/weeds/Weed226.asp

g'day james,

looks like a - wild tobacco aka Tobacco bush - 'Solanum mauritianum'

a good butterfly bush lots of gardeners class them as weeds i've never
seen them that prdominant, related to the tomato/egg plant/capsicum
family some avid gardeners toying with grafting tomato bud stock to
the t/b root stock, if it works it will be a very strong drought
tollerant tomato to say the least.

i doesn't bare edible fruits of any sort and i would suggest don't use
the leaves as tobacco as the plant is toxic.

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 18:21:37 +1000, James McNangle
wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

Richard Wright wrote:

I'm afraid you are not going to get any eggplants. I think the plant
is the South American weed Solanum mauritianum or woolly nightshade.

Thanks, Len & Richard. I'll pull it out before it sets seed. Apparently some
Greek gardeners have found a way to graft egg plant branches to it, with good
results, though.


James McNangle

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 18:21:37 +1000, James McNangle
wrote:

Last spring a strange plant appeared in our vegetable garden. It
had large furry leaves, and grew very rapidly. I was intrigued, so
I left there to see what would happen. It is now a very substantial
plant -- more than two metres high -- and has developed a number of
heads of solanum type flowers. You can see some photos of it at:
http://www.corybas.com/Technical/Mystery_plant.htm

I've never seen anything like that, you must be in a warm climate? flowers
look like it's from the potato etc family.

--
ant

James McNangle wrote:
Richard Wright wrote:

I'm afraid you are not going to get any eggplants. I think the plant
is the South American weed Solanum mauritianum or woolly nightshade.

Thanks, Len & Richard. I'll pull it out before it sets seed.
Apparently some Greek gardeners have found a way to graft egg plant
branches to it, with good results, though.

Well, you could see how that'd work. Same family, but it's got a good strong
woody base. Eggplants are a nuisence as they need really warm soil to get
going, a long growing season,and sometimes can't handle the weight of their
fruit. So this grafting gig would improve a lot of htings.


--
ant

gardenlen wrote:
there ya go james,

have some fun try grafting yourself you could graft capsicum or tamato
onto it as well, wouldn't worry about it setting seed it's not likely
to go rampant unless you allow it to.


On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 10:22:50 +1000, James McNangle
wrote:
snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com
Wow a rampant grafted egcapsitom. I wish !!!!

there ya go james,

have some fun try grafting yourself you could graft capsicum or tamato
onto it as well, wouldn't worry about it setting seed it's not likely
to go rampant unless you allow it to.


On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 10:22:50 +1000, James McNangle
wrote:
snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

g'day ant,

the potato also from the solanum or night shade family lots of edibles
derived from that poisonous family. not sure but i think yakon and
sunflower fit in there as well?



snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

"James McNangle" wrote in message
...
Last spring a strange plant appeared in our vegetable garden. It had
large
furry leaves, and grew very rapidly. I was intrigued, so I left there to
see
what would happen. It is now a very substantial plant -- more than two
metres
high -- and has developed a number of heads of solanum type flowers. You
can
see some photos of it at:
http://www.corybas.com/Technical/Mystery_plant.htm

It reminds me rather of tobacco, but a Greek friend tells us that it is a
type
of eggplant, and that if we had had it grafted we would have an ample
supply of
eggplants.

Can anyone cast any further light on what it is?


James McNangle

Tobbaco weed, it's a declared noxious weed and if you let it go to seed you
will have zillions of them.

David

James McNangle writes:
Last spring a strange plant appeared in our vegetable garden. It had large
furry leaves, and grew very rapidly.

My browsing is crippled at the moment, I'm limited to text only. But I'll
bet that it's what is known as native tobacco. Does it have flower heads
containing lots of flowers that are incredible magnets for some sort of
red and brown beetle? The seeds are most likely spread by birds.

The native tobacco is a fantastic plant, and it has been discovered that
lots of other plants can be grafted to use the tobacco as rootstock. When
performed correctly, the yield of tomatoes, etc., can double, and the
combo has strong resistance to root diseases.

what would happen. It is now a very substantial plant -- more than two metres
high -- and has developed a number of heads of solanum type flowers. You can
see some photos of it at: http://www.corybas.com/Technical/Mystery_plant.htm

It reminds me rather of tobacco, but a Greek friend tells us that it is a type
of eggplant, and that if we had had it grafted we would have an ample supply of
eggplants.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

John Savage wrote:

My browsing is crippled at the moment, I'm limited to text only. But I'll
bet that it's what is known as native tobacco.

I don't know what 'native tobacco' is -- common names are notoriously
unreliable, but having consulted Flora of Victoria it is definitely not a member
of the genus Nicotiana, and is almost certainly the South American Solanum
mauritianum, as Len and Richard Wright pointed out.


James McNangle