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Rimbaud
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Joined: 16 Jul 2005
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Location: BACK! Home in Sydney
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 Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 5:37 pm Post subject: What Aussie natives are called "Nightshade"? |
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Just wondering what natives you've heard going by the common name "nightshade"??
i got a Q at the markets today about my Atropa belladonna (along the lines of, "but THAT's not nightshade, i thought THIS was nightshade")
I suppose some native Solanums are known by the nightshade monicker? any others?
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indole
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Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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Location: Somewhere in the southwest
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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The Solanaceae is often called the 'nightshade family' so it would be semi-correct to call any solanaceous plant a nightshade. |
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Rimbaud
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:09 am Post subject: |
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sorry i should have been more specific. i marked my atropa belladonna as "deadly nightshade" at the markets. I like that name better than "belladonna" you see  So someone thought that there is an Aussie native also known colloquially as "deadly nightshade". However I suppose that in addition to Solanaceae often being called "nightshades", there must be quite a few colloquially-named "deadly nightshades" too... since, well, many of these nightshades can be deadly 
but are there any really well-known aussie native "deadly nightshades"?
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Benzito
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Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:12 pm Post subject: |
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My girlfriend's dad has a plant in his yard, that she knows as a 'woody nightshade', that is meant to be a native.
| Quote: |
| It is a climbing vine, with leaves shaped like watermelon-leaves, but smaller, and gets small star-shaped purple flowers with yellow pistils, and bright red, juicy berries, with black seeds. The stem is quite 'woody', compared to other Belladonna's. |
That's how she describes it.
Maybe that will help?
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Rimbaud
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:16 am Post subject: |
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wow, i see that even the name "Belladonna" is applied to multiple "nightshades"!
maybe i should just constantly talk in latin at the markets  "Atropa belladonna" should not be confusing then |
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Bluetongue
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Joined: 20 Nov 2005
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Location: Geelong, VIC
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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What I was told: Australia doesn't have deadly nightshade. The common garden Solanum species with small black berries sometimes get called nightshade/black nightshade/deadly nightshade. But some are edible - I'm sure I've seen a recipe involving those berries in a bushfood recipe book somewhere. Not that I'm game to try it.
So your Atropa belladonna must be a native, for you to have posted the question here... how confusing! Where's it come from in Oz? Obviously I could google it right now but I'd rather ask you |
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Bluetongue
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Joined: 20 Nov 2005
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Location: Geelong, VIC
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| Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:01 am Post subject: |
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Never mind, I looked it up, I know you're busy
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| The berries from the common garden and crop weeds Blackberry Nightshade, Solanum nigrum and the Glossy Nightshade, Solanum americanum have a variety of tastes sensations ranging from a sweet mulberry-like taste through to a somewhat bitter taste. The early settlers frequently made jam from the shiny black berries (10 ounces of sugar to the pound of fruit). The tender green leaves were also cooked and eaten. |
http://home.vtown.com.au/~dbellamy/native/solanace.html
Some Vietnamese people I worked with collected this type, not your version. Thank goodness. They collected all sorts of weeds I'd not considered food, while we weeded another crop. The only weed I particularly like is dandelion. |
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Rimbaud
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Location: BACK! Home in Sydney
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| Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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Ahh sorry ! Not busy just lazy.
Atropa belladonna is not an Aussie native (i shouldn't have mentioned it )
Belladonna is especially deadly though. I would GUESS (??) more deadly than any locally occuring solanaceous cousin. Who knows? |
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Bluetongue
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Location: Geelong, VIC
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| Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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I'm amazed I didn't ask this before: "Why were you selling deadly nightshade?"
And I found recipes for the Solanum nightshade - one is in Cherikoff's Bushfood Handbook, page 94 "Black Nightshade Flan". |
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prier
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Joined: 30 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:53 pm Post subject: |
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my mum always refered to solanum nigrum as deadly nightshade... |
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trish_g
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Joined: 15 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:25 am Post subject: |
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Solanum nigrum - a common introduced weed - is usually called "deadly nightshade" here (Toowoomba), too, but it's not deadly. The little black fruits are very tasty when ripe but poisonous when not. I believe this is the case with most members of the nightshade family including the common supermarket tomato.
I think that despite the name "deadly", most nightshades are not really drop-dead poisonous plants. They are more of play-merry-hell-with your-female-hormones plants. They contain alkaloids which were traditionally used as contraceptives, and I understand that some modern chemical companies use them for their medicinal extracts.
The trouble with primitive contraception methods is that what they really consisted of was a monthly abortion. So don't play around with Solanums if you want your pregnancy to reach a happy conslusion.
I feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea of popularising any but the very traditionally used species of "bush tomato", as I'm not sure how thoroughly the different species have really been researched. Even with traditionally used species, I think there's a risk that modern Australians might miss out on gems of old knowledge of the "women don't use this when pregnant" type.
Trish
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