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A short lived perennial species from Fiji. It is not thought to be frost hardy but it was annual here
and dead before the frosts arrived. Called the Cannibal's Tomato, the story is that it was the perfect sauce for a cannibal's
meal. More colourful than the fruits which might have turned red but actually dropped off before that point. Rareplants.eu say: "50cm, Cannibal's Tomato is native to Tahiti and the Fiji islands (South Pacific). It is an annual to semiperennial shrub with edible, shiny bright red, tomato-like fruits and dark green foliage. Fruits can be used cooked like the common tomato. Grows well in any rich, well drained soil in a sunny spot. If grown as a perennial in pots, keep plants warm (minimum of 15°C) and sunny in winter, reduce watering. Else it can be grown as an annual as well. Sow in spring at some 20°C under glass, transplant seedlings after the last cold nights end of spring to early summer. Seedlings are fast growing and fruit towards the end of summer." Valentine Floral Creations say: "The first collections of the species were created during the second research trip of James Cooks to New Zealand and into the South Pacific (1772-1775) by Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg Forster. Since the name published in Georg Forster's dissertation De plantis esculentis insularum Oceaniae 1786 is not validly published, the regular first description by the German botanist and physician Kurt Sprengel 1807 comes under the name given by the Forsters on the Herbarbelegen name Solanum viride. Later, the plant was described several times under another name, so in 1852 by the French botanist Michel Félix Dunal under the name Solanum uporo, under which the plant is still often found today." |
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