Timothy Horrigan schreef
Potato plants only rarely produce fruit but it does happen on occasion
(e.g., in NH this summer, which had exceptionally low rainfall.) The fruits
look like tomato fruits. They are (probably) not edible.

+ + +
For the record (repeat): potato fruits are not edible, nor are those of most
wild tomatos
+ + +

(The leaves and stems of the potato are not edible, hence the fruit is
unlikely to be edible either.)

+ + +
This is invalid reasoning. If a plant has a choice, stem and leafs are as
inedible as possible, since a plant likes to keep as much of its green parts
intact as it can.

When plants have noticeable fruits these are usually edible and are almost
certainly so when they are red. Otherwise dispersal by animals would not
work. Curiously it happens that Atropa bella-donna (same family) has black
fruits, edible to birds and some mammals put poisonous to humans, children
being especially at risk, the more so since the fruit somewhat resembles a
cherry.
PvR

Timothy Horrigan schreef
Potato plants only rarely produce fruit but it does happen on occasion
(e.g., in NH this summer, which had exceptionally low rainfall.) The fruits
look like tomato fruits. They are (probably) not edible.

+ + +
P van Rijckevorsel wrote:
For the record (repeat): potato fruits are not edible, nor are those of
most wild tomatos

===============
Beverly Erlebacher schreef
They are apparently quite toxic. Kay Lancaster, who used to post here a
lot more when she was Kay Klier and lived in the midwest, used to do
forensic botany -- hospitals called her in to examine the vomitus of people
poisoned by eating plant materials in hopes of identifying them in order to
determine effective treatment. I remember one case she reported of a very
ill patient who had had the brilliant idea of eating potato fruits because
they resembled little tomatoes. I assume they are especially dangerous in
that they are not too bitter to eat.

+ + +

(The leaves and stems of the potato are not edible, hence the fruit is
unlikely to be edible either.)

+ + +
This is invalid reasoning. If a plant has a choice, stem and leafs are
as
inedible as possible, since a plant likes to keep as much of its green parts
intact as it can.

==================
Plants are not out there for your benefit. While the nightshade family
is well known for the toxicity of many of its members, there are a few
species in Africa and India whose leaves are eaten as potherbs. And a
family as apparently innocuous as the Umbelliferae (or whatever it is these
days)
+ + +
Still Umbelliferae, although the "allowed alternative" of Apiaceae is
gaining hand over hand in botany texts
+ + +
full of tasty veggies and herbs like celery, dill, parsley, carrots, fennel,
etc, includes poison hemlock of which a really small amount can kill an
adult. And while many seeds of this family are used as flavourings (dill,
caraway, anise, cumin, cariander and many more), carrot seeds can cause
miscarriage.

So while assuming something is dangerous to eat is a safe strategy,
reasoning about what is safe to eat can be a dangerous one.

+ + +
Quite, there is a lot of trial and error involved. Both the existing food
crops
and the knowledge of what is safe and useful to gather from the wild
represent quite an investment of human effort.
+ + +

When plants have noticeable fruits these are usually edible and are
almost certainly so when they are red. Otherwise dispersal by animals would
not work. Curiously it happens that Atropa bella-donna (same family) has
black fruits, edible to birds and some mammals put poisonous to humans,
children being especially at risk, the more so since the fruit somewhat
resembles a cherry.

+ + +
Lots of other nightshades have bright colored fruits to attract birds but
toxins or feeding deterrents to repel mammals, hot peppers being a prime
example. And a lot of feeding-deterrents that plants make to fend off
insects
and other herbivores please us enough that we've domesticated these plants
to flavour our food as herbs and spices, or as vegetables.

In article , Beverly
Erlebacher writes
And a family
as apparently innocuous as the Umbelliferae (or whatever it is these days)
full of tasty veggies and herbs like celery, dill, parsley, carrots, fennel,
etc, includes poison hemlock of which a really small amount can kill an
adult. And while many seeds of this family are used as flavourings (dill,
caraway, anise, cumin, cariander and many more), carrot seeds can cause
miscarriage.

I never thought of Umbelliferae as innocuous; at a guess it contains 2
of the 3 most toxic plants in the British flora (hemlock and water
dropwort; the 3rd would be deadly nightshade).
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley