Another name for eggplant:Dwarf Melon, White Eggplant, Hanging Vegetable Seed, Falling Soda, Eggplant, Purple Eggplant.

Eggplant (scientific name: Solanum melongena L.) Solanaceae, Solanaceae. Erectly branched herbs to subshrubs, up to 1 m tall, branchlets, petioles and pedicels are 6-8-(10)-branched, flat-appliquéd or short-stalked stellate tomentum, twigs are mostly purple (often with prickles in the wild), and the indumentum gradually falls off with age. Leaves large, ovate to oblong-ovate, petiole ca. 2-4.5 cm (wild ones prickly). Fertile flowers are solitary, with petioles ca. 1-1.8 cm, and dense indumentum. The shape and size of the fruit are highly variable. The shape of the fruit is either long or round, and the color is white, red or purple.

The fruit can be used for vegetable consumption. The roots, stems and leaves are used as medicine, as astringent and diuretic, and the leaves can also be used as an anesthetic. Seeds for the decongestant, also used as a stimulant, but easy to cause gastric weakness and constipation, the fruit of raw food can solve the poisoning of edible fungi.

Native to tropical Asia, cultivated in all provinces of China.

Chinese name

Eggplant

Latin name

Solanum melongena L.

Alias

Dwarf Melon, White Eggplant, Hanging Vegetable, Fallen Sugar, Eggplant, Purple Eggplant

Boundary

Botanical

Portal

Peridium

Morphological features

Erectly branched herb to subshrub, up to 1 m tall, branchlets, petioles and pedicels are covered with 6-8-(10)-branched, flat-appliquéd or short-stalked stellate tomentum, twigs are mostly purple (wild ones tend to have prickles), and the indumentum is gradually shed as they grow old.

Leaves large, ovate to oblong-ovate, 8-18 cm or longer, 5-11 cm or wider, apex obtuse, base unequal, margin shallowly undulate or y undulate-circularly lobed, stellate tomentose above with 3-7-(8)-branched short, appressed stellate tomentose trichomes, densely stellate tomentose below with 7-8 longer, appressed stellate tomentose trichomes, lateral veins 4-5 on each side, sparsely stellate tomentose trichomes above and densely so below. The indumentum of the midvein is the same as that of the lateral veins (the midvein and lateral veins of the wild species have small prickles on both surfaces), and the petiole is ca. 2-4.5 cm long (the wild ones have prickles).

Fertile flowers solitary, petiole ca. 1-1.8 cm, densely indumentum, often pendulous after flowering, infertile flowers scorpioid and fertile flowers; calyx subcampanulate, ca. 2.5 cm in diam. or slightly larger, outside densely stellate tomentum similar to pedicel and small prickles, prickles ca. 3 mm, calyx lobes lanceolate, apex acute, inside sparsely stellate tomentum, corolla rotate, outside densely stellate tomentum, inside lobes only sparsely stellate tomentose at apex, corolla tube ca. 2 mm, limb ca. 2.1 cm, lobes triangular, ca. 1 cm; filaments ca. 2.5 mm, anthers ca. 7.5 mm; ovary orbicular, apically densely stellate tomentose, style ca. 4-7 mm, stellate tomentose below middle, stigma lobed.

This species is highly variable due to long-term cultivation, and the color of the flowers and the number of flower parts vary, generally with white flowers, purple flowers, and 5-6-7 numbers.

The shape and size of the fruit vary greatly. The shape of the fruit is either long or round, and the color is white, red, and purple.