HelpfulGardener.com

Hello my fellow gardeners,

I hope you are all having a wonderful day.

I've recently picked up a new hobby and find gardening an exciting and adrenaline rushing activity (whilst waiting for my plants to sprout!). I reside in Sydney, Australia and the weather has been warming up recently so it's been great!

Anyway, I have noticed this grow in my veggie patch however, I'm uncertain as to what it is and weather it's safe to consume. I think it's an eggplant, but not entirely sure. If anyone is familiar with it, I would love to know.
Many thanks,
Novice Gardener

It is in the nightshade family. We call it papolo berry. It is used as medicine and the berry can be used as a black dye. You need to know what you are doing with this plant since parts of it is toxic. The birds usually bring it and it grows as a weed. I pull most of it out. It actually does better as a weed than as a cultivated plant.

https://data.bishopmuseum.org/ethnobotan ... &ID=popolo

Thank you imafan26

I would have said black nightshade, but I looked it up and popolo is just another common name for the same thing, solanum nigrum. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are in the same genus, solanum, so your confusion is understandable. Black nightshade is toxic. As imafan said, black nightshade has been used for food and medicine, but you do need to know what you are doing. From wiki: "The plant has been used as a vegetable for centuries and proper preparation is important. Like many other common vegetables, it should not be consumed raw. ..There are ethnobotanical accounts of S.nigrum leaves and shoots being boiled as a vegetable with the cooking water being discarded and replaced several times to remove toxins."

It appears as a weed in my yard too (well-travelled plant!). Since I haven't gotten in to natural dying, I just pull it.

Thank you for the clarification, Rainbowgardener. Truly appreciate it