Solanum aviculare

Solanum aviculare, commonly known as kangaroo apple or New Zealand nightshade, is a species of flowering plant in the family Solanaceae and native to New Zealand and the east coast of Australia.

Description

A shrub which keeps growing from year to year. It grows to 2-4 m tall and spreads to 5 m across. The stem is erect with spreading branches. The stems are purplish-green and angular. The leaves are dark green and 10-30 cm long and 1-12 cm wide. Normally the leaves are deeply divided into long tapering triangular segments. The leaf stalks are 3 cm long. The flowers are blue or purple and 3.5 cm across. They are 5 sided or star shaped with sharply pointed lobes. They develop in bunches in the axils of leaves and towards the ends of branches. The bunches can be 5-13 cm across. The fruit are egg shaped berries. They are orange, red or yellow and 2.5 cm long. There are several seeds inside the soft pulp.

Edible Uses

The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked, but must be thoroughly ripe as unripe fruit is poisonous. It can be used as a sweet fruit or as a vegetable. The fruit is best harvested once it has fallen from the plant, at which point it will have lost its unpleasant acidity. It tastes much worse than it looks — sickly sweet and often bitter — and quality varies from plant to plant and even year to year on the same plant. The fruit is up to 2cm long and contains a large number of flat seeds.

Traditional Uses

The fully ripe fruit is eaten raw or baked until the skin breaks open. They can be boiled, baked or stewed with sugar. They can be made into jam. Caution: The chemicals could make this plant risky, especially with unripe fruit and for pregnant women.

Medicinal Uses

The plant is a source of steroids much used in the pharmaceutical industry. The unripe berries are the richest source.

Known Hazards

The fruit when unripe was traditionally boiled by Indigenous communities in Australia to allow for its use as an oral contraceptive for women. The leaves and unripe fruits of S. aviculare contain the toxic alkaloid solasodine. S. aviculare is cultivated in Russia and Hungary for the solasidine which is extracted and used as a base material for the production of steroid contraceptives. Indigenous communities in Australia also used the fruit as a poultice on swollen joints. The plant contains a steroid which is important to the production of cortisone. The plant is also used as a rootstock for grafting eggplant.

Distribution

A warm and cool temperate plant. It is drought and frost resistant. It will grow on most soils. It is more common near the edges of rainforests. It suits hardiness zones 9-11.

Where It Grows

Asia, Australia, Britain, Europe, India, New Caledonia, New Zealand*, Norfolk Island, Pacific, Papua New Guinea, PNG, Solomon Islands, Russia, Tasmania, Vanuatu,

Cultivation

Succeeds in most fertile soils in a sunny position. Tolerates temperatures down to at least -7°c in Australian gardens but is not very hardy in Britain. It sometimes succeeds as a shrub outdoors in the mildest areas of the country but is more usually cut to the ground by winter cold. It can, however, be grown at the foot of a warm sunny wall and be treated as a herbaceous perennial. As long as the roots are given a good mulch in autumn they should survive quite cold winters. Alternatively, it is possible to grow the plant as an annual. If the seed is sown in early spring in a warm greenhouse and planted out after the last frosts it can fruit in its first year though yields will be lower than from plants grown as perennials. A very ornamental plant, it has been cultivated for its edible fruit by the New Zealand Maoris. It is a fast-growing but short-lived plant. There is much confusion between this species and S. laciniatum. Some botanists unite the two under S. aviculare whilst others say that S. laciniatum is a tetraploid form of this species. S. laciniatum is treated as a distinct species here.

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in a warm greenhouse. Germinates in 2–3 weeks at 20°C. Prick out seedlings into individual pots when large enough to handle. If growing as annuals, plant out after the last expected frosts with some protection such as a cloche until established. If growing as a perennial, especially at the limits of cold-hardiness, it is better to keep plants in the greenhouse for the first winter in fairly large pots (12cm or larger) to accommodate strong root growth. Top growth may die back over winter but roots should survive if greenhouse temperatures do not fall below about -5°C. Plant out in early summer the following year; plants will be somewhat hardier in their second winter. Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame. Very easy — cuttings root within a couple of weeks. Pot up in fairly large pots and overwinter in the greenhouse before planting out in early summer.

Other Uses

In warmer climates than Britain this plant is often used as a hedge.

Production

The fully mature fruit are collected after they drop from the plant. They have then lost their unpleasant acid taste.

Notes

Steroid drugs are collected from this plant. It is extensively cultivated in Russia. There are about 1400 Solanum species. Possibly not in Tasmania?.

Also Known As

Mayakitch, Mookitch

References (41)

• Ambasta, S.P. (Ed.), 2000, The Useful Plants of India. CSIR India. p 579
• Arora, R. K., 2014, Diversity in Underutilized Plant Species - An Asia-Pacific Perspective. Bioversity International. p 51
• Bindon, P., 1996, Useful Bush Plants. Western Australian Museum. p 229
• Blomberry, A.M., 1979, Australian Native Plants. Angus and Robertson p 316
• Bodkin, F., 1991, Encyclopedia Botanica. Cornstalk publishing, p 933

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