Know your Aubergines
Know your Aubergines - Introduction
The aubergine, Solanum melongena, is a plant of the family Solanaceae (also known as the nightshades) and genus Solanum.
It bears a fruit of the same name, commonly used as a vegetable in cooking.
As a nightshade, it is closely related to the tomato and potato and is native to Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Know your Aubergines - Common names
The aubergine is also known as eggplant, melongene or brinjal.
Know your Aubergines - Cultivation
It is a delicate perennial often cultivated as an annual.
Though perennial in its native Africa and Asia, most gardeners grow it as an annual vegetable.
Know your Aubergines - Botany
A healthy, mature plant has large, fuzzy, green leaves and an upright, bushy habit.
It grows 40 to 150 cm (16 to 57 in) tall, with large coarsely lobed leaves that are 10 to 20 cm (4–8 in) long and 5 to 10 cm (2–4 in) broad.
(Semi-)wild types can grow much larger, to 225 cm (7 ft) with large leaves over 30 cm (12 in) long and 15 cm (6 in) broad.
The stem is often spiny. The flowers are white to purple, with a five-lobed corolla and yellow stamens.
The fruit is fleshy, less than 3 centimetres (1.2 in) in diameter on wild plants, but much larger in cultivated forms.
The fruit is botanically classified as a berry, and contains numerous small, soft seeds, which are edible, but are bitter because they contain nicotinoid alkaloids, unsurprising as it is a close relative of tobacco.
