''Solanum scabrum'', also known as garden huckleberry, is an annual or perennial plant in the

nightshade Solanaceae (), commonly known as the nightshades, is a family of flowering plants in the order Solanales. It contains approximately 2,700 species, several of which are used as agricultural crops, medicinal plants, and ornamental plants. Many me ...

family. The geographic origin of the species is uncertain;

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

attributed it to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, but it also occurs in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, and it is

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

in many countries. In Africa it is cultivated as a leaf vegetable and for dye from the berries.Manoko,M.L.K.,van den Berg,R.G., Feron,R.M.C.,van der Weerden,G.M., Mariani,C.
Genetic diversity of the African hexaploid species Solanum scabrum Mill. and Solanum nigrum L. (Solanaceae)
''Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution,'' Volume 55, Number 3, 409-418.

Description

An annual or short-lived perennial herb to 1 m tall, hairless or sparsely hairy. The leaves are usually ovate, long and wide, with petioles long. The inflorescence is simple or sometimes branched with 9–12 flowers. The white corolla is

stellate Stellate, meaning star-shaped, may be used to describe: Biology * Stellate cell (disambiguation) * Stellate ganglion * Stellate reticulum * Stellate veins * Stellate trichomes (hairs) Other * Stellate wounds from lacerations or incisions * S ...

, in diameter, and sometimes tinged purple and with yellow/green basal star. The berries are globular, in diameter, purple-black. The seeds are long, pale or stained purple.Factsheet ''Solanum scabrum'', Flora of South Australia
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Food

''Solanum scabrum'' is grown as an edible leaf crop in Africa. It is the most intensively cultivated species for leaf cropping within the ''Solanum nigrum'' complex, and as such has undergone genetic selection by farmers for leaf size and other characteristics. Njama njama is a

Cameroonian cuisine Cameroonian cuisine is one of the most varied in Africa due to Cameroon's location on the crossroads between the north, west, and center of the continent; the diversity in ethnicity with mixture ranging from Bantu peoples, Bantus, Bamileke peo ...

dish made with the leaves.

Dye

In Africa a stocky form of ''Solanum scabrum'' is cultivated as a dye crop using the ripe berries.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q24853233 scabrum Taxa named by Philip Miller