I have several of these plants suddenly appearing in my veggie patch this summer. But I do not know what plant this is as I have never grown them before. I hope someone can help me identify this plant and what should I do with it. This plant flower are white. The flower shape is similar to solanum (potato/eggplant) family.
It produces small fruits about 1 cm size in diameter which turn to purplish black colour.
This is the first time I have seen it in our veggie patch and we are very curious to know what it is.
How about a "Companion Plant" week from 21st of April till 30th April?
It will be nice to share some ideas about maximising the use of space and crop yields with companion planting for enhancing flavour, growth and add more beauty and spice to the garden with different combination of plants. One advantages of companion planting is to attract benificial insects for pollinations or natural predators to patrol your garden against pests. Therefore, less of our energy, time and money to deal with pests. This month is the time many of us are busy with spring or fall planting. Hopefully we all can share our experience from the garden which is good or bad company.
19 comments:
I think your unknown plant is black nightshade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum_nigrum
But it is very similar to deadly nightshade, so don't eat it without knowing for certain.
I have seen something like this I found a website that might have more info http://www.oisat.org/pests/weeds/broad_leaf_weeds/black_nightshade.html
I was going to say night shade too!... HArd to get rid of...
I was hoping it might have been a thai pea eggplant for you with those flowers. I hope its not one of those bad weeds. Good luck.
We have something similar and I would not eat the leaves or fruit, my neighbor told me the name I shall check with her.
Hello Diana, In this part of Canada we call it "snake berries", but it belongs in the nightshade family which also includes, tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes. I would not eat it. The berries probably stink!
Love and hugs, Laura
It is definitely in the nightshade family and highly toxic. Best to pull it out an put it in the green waste bin. They multiply easily once they set and drop their seeds!
Yep, blackberry nightshade. Pretty harmless weed in my opinion, yes they spread, but are very easily managed by cutting off at the base. I let mine grow last season and only had a handful of plants come up this year. The birds probably spread them. The berries are edible when they are a fully deep black with no green or purple to them. They taste good but a little bit insipid, not a strong flavour to me. My chooks like them :-)
Just to add, Deadly Nightshade is not known in Australia, so little risk of confusion, but yes, it looks similar to the untrained eye as Alison points out.
While it is good advice to never eat anything you cannot positively identify, it's also bad practice to state that something is inedible if you don't know for sure.
I was thinking a form of nightshade too. I wouldn't eat the berries if I wasn't absolutely sure that they were edible. Why risk it?
Thank you everyone for the advice and information regarding this plant. I read story about this nightshade family plant before but did not expect to see it in my own patch. The bird must have been the one spreading it.
I have 3 of this plants too. Bought seeds written as chili but turned out this. I eat as chilies but not hot at all. All 3 in pot, not as big as yours but always flowering and fruiting.
Mm. I ate a lot of them and still alive wor. Weeds?? Wait i go check the packing.. if i still have it. Will take photos to show you my plants!
Hi Malay-Kadazan Girl,
This plant is what Malays call "sayur meranti". We have this growing as weeds in our backyard in Sydney. We were thrilled to bits when we found it. In Malaysia, it's usually sold at nightmarkets in bundles. We would blanch it and eat with sambal tumis ikan bilis, just like young shoots of tapioca (pucuk ubi) or ferns (pucuk paku). The leaves are bitter so usually we'd squeeze the water out after boiling it. purrr....meow!
psst We came here from I Amsterdam's blog.
Milka~ Strange you buy chili seeds and sprouted this plant. Can't wait to see your photos.
Cat-in-Sydney~ Thank you for dropping by. I am not familiar with sayur meranti but your description of how to cook it is mouth watering.
After comment on your post i went out last midnight to see the plant. Now i remembered. The plants i have are maybe capsicums!! But maybe because lack fertilized, the fruits are very very small. They look like the fruits you show here. Have took some pic, will post and show to you. I hope they are not weeds!!
I'm not so sure of this plant but I hope they are edible too!
Salam,
Dari bunga & buah nampak macam terung berembang/pipit, kalau nak lagi pasti perhatikan bawah daun ada rasa berbulu tak? Buahnya hanya bersaiz isi kacang pea. Sedap kalau dicampur dalam sambal tumis, cara masak sama dengan petai, sambal akan bau lebih harum.
ZM
ZM~ Terima kasih. Mula-mula ingat terung pipit tapi kalau dibandingkan warna masa muda lain sedikit. Lebih mirip dengan sayur meranti. Seronok juga kalau dapat terung pipit tumbuh sendiri. Ada semeter lebih juga pokok ni dapat tumbuh.
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