Showing posts with label brugmansia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brugmansia. Show all posts

Friday, October 16, 2020

Family | Solanaceae

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Gardening | Plant ID


The nightshades


The nightshades, are an economically important family of flowering plants. The family ranges from annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of important agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and ornamentals. Many members of the family contain potent alkaloids, and some are highly toxic.

Silver-leaved nightshade, white horsenettle, Solanum eleagnaefolium



While walking along our local trail, I photographed several endemic natives and a few non-native plants that make-up a restored blackland prairie ecosystem. You can observe birds fly into grassy areas and insects pollinating flowers. The etymology of the word "prairie," is French from Latin and the English equivalent is meadow. A meadow or prairie is populated with grasses and shrubby plants.The Texas Blackland Prairies are named after the dark, rich soil.This grassland ecoregion is found running about 300 miles from the Red River in North Texas south to San Antonio.



Silver-leaved nightshade, white horsenettle, (Solanum eleagnaefolium) fruit


Datura                                                                                  



 Datura
Seed Pod


Brugmansia                                                                             
















Many members of the Solanum family—including tomatoespotatoeseggplantbell and chili peppers, and tobacco—are widely used.

The Litchi Tomato 
Litchi tomatoes, also known as Morelle de Balbis shrub, isn’t standard fare at the local garden center or nursery. It is neither a litchi nor a tomato and is difficult to find in North America. Online suppliers are your best bet for starts or seed. Get to know what is a litchi tomato, and then give it a try in your garden.


Morelle de Balbis translates to nightshade by Balbis. Giovanni Battista Balbis (17 November 1765 – 3 February 1831) was an Italian botanist and politician who worked in Italy and France. He alternately was called Gioanni Battista Balbis and Jean-Baptiste Balbis.

Growing eggplants can be a very rewarding experience especially if you are a big fan of Italian cuisine. This year we are growing, Millionaire, a Japanese style eggplant and Fairy tale eggplant, a miniature eggplant. Both prefer a hot, sunny location. Eggplant is a brilliant culinary thrill for summertime. It is a relative of potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, otherwise known as nightshades. The most popular dish, eggplant Parmesan is a staple menu item in Italian cuisine. The origin of the dish is claimed by both the Southern regions of Campania and Sicily


Eggplant Millionaire (Solanum melongena var. esculentum)


Eggplant Millionaire (Solanum melongena var. esculentum) flower


Capsicum, Chilies and Peppers   











 Grassroots Horticulture ~
2022
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In the Dark | Nightshades

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Lights Out


Nightshades

Datura

What do you do to get out of the heat  of the summer? Go to the movies. Right? So to celebrate Labor Day weekend here is a post with a movie theme.


Drama, Drama, Drama. The Datura puts on a show that is definitely an Academy Award winner. Our local Post office has a bed of Datura planted in an alcove in the front of the building. It is in a northern exposure. The very large, trumpet-shaped flowers unfurl and are showy in the evening as well as the morning. 



Purple Preview



Nightshades
Angel Trumpet (Brugmansia)








Angel Trumpet (Brugmansia)
This is in the Nightshade family, and as with most nightshade plants can be toxic. I have started this from seed for myself and a neighbor successfully by placing it directly in the soil in the spring.
The overall plant has a coarse texture but the flowers are remarkably beautiful. They are sweetly fragrant, about 12 in (30.5 cm) long and shaped like trumpets. The corolla has five points that are slightly recurved. The flowers are usually white but may be yellow or pink and are pendulous, hanging almost straight down.


  



Lighting and Special Effects



Ending Shots

White Flower Datura
Seed Pod


Seed Pod Datura 
Texas Native
This could be a Chick Flick with a big and happy Ending. It is very easy to start from seed.





*Many nightshades are poisonous to people as well as to cattle, horses and sheep. Some municipalities have banned the use of specific nightshades as landscape plants.


Family | Solanaceae





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2000-2015


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