Wonderberries

[wildseed57]

Boy I'm glad that i know what I have, as there are several poisonous Solanum - Nightshades that are growing around my duplex and garden some of which look some what like I have while others are making little yellow berries with a husk on them. Its like hunting mushrooms in the fact that picking the wrong one might make it your last. I just picked two quart jars of the berries and I plan to make a tasty jelly with them. I like the mild anise flavor that mine have, that actually improves once its sweetened and cooked down into a jelly or jam. Had I not known that this was a chichiquelite huckleberry, I sure would have gotten rid of it as my grand daughter and neighborhood kids, have a tendency to pick and eat berries that look good to them, my grand daughter no longer picks and eats with out asking, but the younger kids still do, so I have gone out of my way and got rid of all the possibly poisonous plants, so that none of the kids will accidentally eat them.
George W.

[atash]

Interesting. My Chichiquelites and my "Wonderberries" look distinct from those pictured.

My Chichiquelite looks somewhat like Fruitnut's, differing only in that mine had more fruit in a cluster, and the leaves were glossier and had wavier margins. I write in the past tense because only a few plants would ever volunteer again, and the plants would die out in about 2 generations, aside from a few of what look suspiciously like hybrids with the wonderberry.

My wonderberry differs from Ottawagardener's in both shape of fruit and shape of leaf. The habit of the plant is somewhat different too: on mine it is hard to see the fruit as the short fruit clusters tend to hide under the leaves.

My wonderberries (Burbank called them "Sunberries" but it seems like a strange name for a plant whose berries are almost black...you know, "black like the sun...") have naturalized all over my yard. They are highly resistant to disease, and are so tolerant of cool weather that some years they survive the winter...only to die of senescence in the spring.

The fruit is palatable raw if bland. I use them to make ersatz blueberry muffins.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Okay, I'm pretty sure the one i found growing is of the "Sunberry" variety. The leaves look very similar, and the fruit were dull and about gooseberry sweet when black. Plus i found this great link. Apparently It's a totally different plant from the dreaded deadly nightshade.

herbalwitchcraft.com/blog/2010/06/23/three-little-nightshades-in-one/

[woodsygardener]

Sept 7, 2010 12:21:05 GMT -5 keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) said:

Okay, I'm pretty sure the one i found growing is of the "Sunberry" variety. The leaves look very similar, and the fruit were dull and about gooseberry sweet when black. Plus i found this great link. Apparently It's a totally different plant from the dreaded deadly nightshade.

herbalwitchcraft.com/blog/2010/06/23/three-little-nightshades-in-one/

A nice write up. For a more thorough and scientific book I recommend Jennifer Edmonds monograph Black Nightshades: Solanum nigrum L and Related Species.. Available here:
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CBwQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.underutilized-species.org%2Fdocuments%2FPUBLICATIONS%2Fblack_nightshades.pdf&rct=j&q=%22black%20nightshades%22&ei=7PSGTLu9LYjHnAezhbGWDQ&usg=AFQjCNFWu7bVcc-hxwg7OOP1xwQtFghVHQ&sig2=bo5BTXs9aDebIEvb8jOgJg&cad=rja
as a .pdf. Her take on Sunberries:

Solanum retroflexum is believed to be the ‘Sunberry’ promoted by the plant breeder
Luther Burbank as “a new food plant from a poisonous family” at the beginning of
this century in North America (Whitson et al. 1914). Following its marketing, it was
widely used, and widely acclaimed by some, for the preparation of pies, jams and
sauces, with the dealer to which Burbank sold the plant rechristening it as the
'Wonderberry'. Burbank claimed to have derived his plant by hybridizing
‘S. guineense’ (= S. scabrum Mill.) — the garden huckleberry and ‘S. villosum’. Since
these two taxa are hexaploid and tetraploid respectively, the resultant progeny would
have been pentaploid and almost certainly sterile — though Burbank claimed that
his hybrid plants were prolific berry-producers which grew uniformly showing no
signs of segregation in subsequent generations. Because of its obvious relationship
to the black nightshade S. nigrum and the poisonous reputation then surrounding
this species, at least in Europe and North America, controversy quickly ensued over
the claims made for this new fruit. This controversy, which raged in the North
American press, is fully dealt with by Heiser (1969), as are the abortive attempts to
repeat the supposed hybridization in order to recreate the Sunberry and verify
Burbanks' claims. Heiser had previously proved that the actual Sunberry was not
the claimed hybrid derivative but a distinct tetraploid species native to South Africa,
where it was known as “gsoba”, and from where it had been imported. Burbank
may have inadvertently introduced it into his experimental garden and subsequently
selected it as a plant “new to science” (Heiser 1969).

[stevil]

I received Wonderberry and Mrs. B's Nonbitter via SSE's yearbook a few years back. To me they weren't different enough to warrant growing them both - they've also self-seeded here.
Wonderberry (left); Mrs. B's (right)



My foraging hero Sam Thayer came out with a new book some months back (Nature's Garden) and you'll find a 17 page chapter on Black Nightshades.

[ottawagardener]

You've peaked my interest with that book - a chapter on black nightshades - I'll have to look it up.

The two varieties certainly do look incredibly similar.

What's funny was that my youngest (4 years old) was sitting on my lap and said "Mommy when did you take that picture?" I said, that's not my picture. "But it's of our sunberries."

"Good identifying," I say and she responds, "Well mommy I spend a lot of time looking at (eating) them."

There you go, children apparently can recognize them... (no I don't trust her to go foraging on their own quite yet.)

[starlight1153]

The other day when I was looking for Stevia seeds to purchase I happened to see Sunberry seeds for sale too. I just bought some from Cherrygal.com. I've never tried eating or growing them before. They looked so unusual I had to give them a try. Do I need to keep them away from any other type of plants does anybody know?

[ottawagardener]

In the sense that they would cross with them or for rotation / companion purposes? My plants are disease free but they are in the nightshade family so I guess in terms of disease that is important. Something, maybe flea beetles, thinks the leaves are tasty.

[starlight1153]

Ottawagardner... For companion purposes ,please mainly.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Wow. I think i found a poisonous one today..

I noticed a very similar plant about 10 ft. away from my (dead) corn patch where the sunberry was growing. It looked like it might be another sunberry/wonderberry, but i got a nasty surprise..

I tasted just a small leaf and instantly got a headache. (my head is still throbbing) The leaves of the two plants are considerably different as well as the berries.

On the [assumed] sunberry they have rather large leaves and almost black-dull berries.

On the [assumed] poisonous one it has much smaller leaves that are toothed and the berrys are shiny, firm, and slightly see-through-green with almost unnoticeable streaks on the berry. The dried berrys are completely see-through yellow with orange dots.

I've tried to attach a picture to illustrate. Anyway... Yeah to me headache = poison. Ouch. But, at least maybe now you have more info on how to identify the poisonous ones. (especially if you might have children)

-Andrew

Attachments:

[blueadzuki]

That sounds like it might be S. villosum (hairy nightshade) species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Solanum_villosum. yes the leaves would be poisonous, if eaten raw. On the bonus side (assuning that is waht you have, according to some reasearch that has been done, the fruit may be an effective mosquito replellent.www.news-medical.net/news/2008/04/03/36937.aspx

[starlight1153]

Keen... I found a plant when I was weeding my Daylilies. At first I thought maybe the wind or bird s had brought me a Sunberry plant and I wouldn't have to worry about planting or buying more seed if these things tasted good, but when I looked at the photo's of the seed for sale on line it looked like the Sunberry produced berries in a fairly good amount in clusters and this plant had only 4 berries to each cluster, not ten like I have in seen in most pics.

Something had tried to eat a couple hole s through the leaves and only one berry had a tiny bite out of it . Looks like whatever started to eat it didn't like it. I wasn't brave enough to try and taste it.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

starlight, my plant also only produces about 4 berry's each node. I don't know if it is a sunberry or not. It would be nice to know if the store bought Sunberries always produce lots of berry's like stevils picture. Anyone??..

All i know is that i'm confident that the one with black berry's i have is not poisonous, while i am confident the shiny green one IS poisonous. The leaves of my assumed sunberry do not taste bitter. But, the other nightshade leaf DID taste bitter followed by an immediate headache. I did not taste the berry of the shiny-green one. But, i could be wrong. Don't take my word for it.

I'm not going to tell you to try any, but i am curious to find out what yours is. I don't blame you for not being brave enough.

As others have said... One taste shouldn't provide enough poison to do any damage if the plant turns out to have poison. Sorry if i keep freaking people out with this poison talk. I feel like i hijacked this thread. I am definitely not the expert here.

[ottawagardener]

Mine looks like Stevils.

For companion purposes, I'd equate it to tomatoes as it is a fruiting nightshade. Mine has grown well with raspberries, goosefoot and brassicas. So far, I haven't noticed a big issue with any plant growing near it except maybe peas but then I think that was more the slugs than the sunberry.

[ottawagardener]

Leaves taking on a purple tinge in the cool temperatures of fall.