About Solanum houstonii Martyn
Solanum, the genus that includes Solanum houstonii Martyn, is a large, diverse genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is the largest genus in Solanaceae, with a current count of roughly 1,500 to 2,000 species; older sources cite around 1,500 species. This genus includes three food crops of very high global economic importance: the potato, the tomato, and the eggplant (also called aubergine or brinjal). It also contains the plants commonly known as horse nettles, which are not related to true nettles of the genus Urtica, plus many species grown as ornamentals for their flowers and fruit. Solanum species have a wide variety of growth habits, including annuals, perennials, vines, subshrubs, shrubs, and small trees. Many genera that were previously classified as independent, such as Lycopersicon (tomatoes) and Cyphomandra, are now grouped into Solanum as subgenera or sections. In terms of ecology, Solanum species act as food plants for the larvae of some Lepidoptera, the order of butterflies and moths. Most parts of Solanum plants, especially the green parts and unripe fruit, are poisonous to humans (though they are not necessarily poisonous to other animals), and some species can even be deadly to humans. Many Solanum species have edible parts, including fruits, leaves, and tubers. Three species in particular have been selectively bred, harvested for human consumption for centuries, and are now cultivated globally: the tomato (S. lycopersicum), the potato (S. tuberosum), and the eggplant (S. melongena). Some tomato varieties are bred from both S. lycopersicum and wild tomato species such as S. pimpinellifolium, S. peruvianum, S. cheesmanii, S. galapagense, and S. chilense; examples of these varieties include Bicentennial, Dwarf Italian, Epoch, Golden Sphere, Hawaii, Ida Red, Indigo Rose, Kauai, Lanai, Marion, Maui, Molokai, Niihau, Oahu, Owyhee, Parma, Payette, Red Lode, Super Star, Surecrop, Tuckers Forcing, V 121, Vantage, Vetomold, and Waltham. The potato (S. tuberosum) is the fourth largest food crop globally; several less widely cultivated potato relatives are used in small amounts, including S. stenotomum, S. phureja, S. goniocalyx, S. ajanhuiri, S. chaucha, S. juzepczukii, and S. curtilobum. A number of other Solanum species are important regional food crops, including Ethiopian eggplant or scarlet eggplant (S. aethiopicum), naranjilla or lulo (S. quitoense), cocona (S. sessiliflorum), turkey berry (S. torvum), pepino or pepino melon (S. muricatum), tamarillo (S. betaceum), wolf apple (S. lycocarpum), garden huckleberry (S. scabrum), and multiple Australian species called "bush tomatoes". Several Solanum species are used locally in folk medicine, most notably by Indigenous peoples who have used them for this purpose for a long time.
