Out collecting black nightshade berries the other day I came across two
Solanum nigrum plants which were lacking their blue pigment, so the ripe
berries were golden. (I might have mentioned this before...)

I picked all the ripe berries and kept them separate, and when at home,
retrieved the seeds. The pulp was a much better flavour than the 'black'
berries (IMO) and seemed sweeter.

Since I'd never seen one of these plants before (and I've been eating
black nightshade beries for getting on for half a century now) I offered
some of the seeds to the Royal Botanical Gardens' Millennium Seed Bank,
and it seems that Kew knows nothing of the plant - would I send a
specimen? (Done.)

Has anyone else seen one?

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 20:24:04 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

Out collecting black nightshade berries the other day I came across two
Solanum nigrum plants which were lacking their blue pigment, so the ripe
berries were golden. (I might have mentioned this before...)

I picked all the ripe berries and kept them separate, and when at home,
retrieved the seeds. The pulp was a much better flavour than the 'black'
berries (IMO) and seemed sweeter.

Since I'd never seen one of these plants before (and I've been eating
black nightshade beries for getting on for half a century now) I offered
some of the seeds to the Royal Botanical Gardens' Millennium Seed Bank,
and it seems that Kew knows nothing of the plant - would I send a
specimen? (Done.)

Has anyone else seen one?

No but I saw an article in the local paper which said that Blooms of
Bressingham were looking for unusual and saleable varieties of plant.
The gist was that they do the paperwork and propagation and you and
Blooms split the profit. Your first million is around the corner ...

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England
|""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs
/ ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc
|____| www.kettlenet.co.uk 01359 230642

The message
from (Anna Kettle) contains these words:

No but I saw an article in the local paper which said that Blooms of
Bressingham were looking for unusual and saleable varieties of plant.
The gist was that they do the paperwork and propagation and you and
Blooms split the profit. Your first million is around the corner ...

Hmmm. Thanks for that.

I'm going to try to cross them with the so-called 'Garden Huckleberry',
then recross and recross the results (assuming there are any) in the
hope of getting Golden Garden Huckleberries.

Now that *MIGHT* be worth trying to market.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in
message k...
The message
from (Anna Kettle) contains these words:

No but I saw an article in the local paper which said that Blooms
of
Bressingham were looking for unusual and saleable varieties of
plant.
The gist was that they do the paperwork and propagation and you
and
Blooms split the profit. Your first million is around the corner
....

Hmmm. Thanks for that.

I'm going to try to cross them with the so-called 'Garden
Huckleberry',
then recross and recross the results (assuming there are any) in the
hope of getting Golden Garden Huckleberries.

Now that *MIGHT* be worth trying to market.

How are you going to verify that your proposed breeding plans do not
result in the introduction of a poisonous content into the berries?

Franz

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.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

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.