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Plant · P-217
African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
African Eggplant, also called gboma or scarlet eggplant, is a West and Central African relative of eggplant that gives two harvests from one plant: the young leaves and stripped flower shoots cook into a bitter hot-season green, while the fruit gets eaten at several stages, from bitter unripe pods fried like eggplant to some ripe forms eaten raw in stews. The greens matter more than they sound - they fill the hottest part of summer, right when lettuce and the brassica greens have already finished for the year. It needs a long frost-free season, more than four months, and tolerates a wider range of soils, from sand to clay, than most of its garden relatives.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 8–12
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 5.5–7
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 2–8 ft
- Mature spread
- Not yet recorded
- Plant spacing
- 24–36 in
- Root type
- Not yet recorded
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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