[Thai Pea Eggplant; Turkey Berry, Susumber (Jamaica); Sundaikkai (Tamil); Makhua phuang (Thai); Thibbatu (Sinhala); Abeduru, Kwahu Nsosua (Twi - Ghana); Solanum torvum]
This close relative of the eggplant, producing fruit about 0.4 inch diameter, is native to the Americas, from Florida through the Caribbean and from Mexico south into Brazil. It has been naturalized throughout the tropics and can be a serious pest in some environments (the plants grow large and have lots of thorns). The berries grow in clusters, and are usually picked green, but can ripen to yellow and bright red.
While somewhat more bitter than the green Thai eggplant, the pea eggplant is used in many cuisines, particularly in Southeast Asia and southern India. It has a significant place in the cuisines of Tamil Nadu. The fruits are used both fresh, and slit and dried. I have not seen these for sale here in Los Angeles. Photo by Parvathisri distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike v3.0 Unported.
Seeds are easily available on line, but I've tried growing from seeds from the Caribbean and from Thailand. In both cases, the plants grew into small trees, and flowerd profusely, but produced only 2 to 4 eggplants per year. Perhaps their polination conditions aren't met here in Southern California. I tried hand polinating, but that didn't work either. I see that they are successfully grown in the Midwest.
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