Solanaceous vegetables - list of plant names

Everyone knows vegetables such as potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, but not everyone knows that they belong to the Solanaceae family. It is quite problematic to compile the list of nightshade vegetables, since it will include more than 2,500 different plants growing around the world.

For those wondering which vegetables belong to the nightshade, it will be useful to familiarize yourself with the most common crops.

Some members of the Solanaceae family are known to everyone.

Potatoes

Potatoes are one of the more popular Solanaceous vegetables. In Russia, this is the most important food crop, which, in addition to food, is used in other industries, for example, in the chemical or textile industry.

Potatoes are an annual, tuberous, vegetatively propagated crop. The plant is a small shrub that forms 5 to 15 tubers in the soil, depending on the variety.

Planting a cuttings in a potato tuber

Being a moisture and light-loving plant, potatoes stop growing when the air temperature drops to +5 degrees or rises above +35 degrees. All varieties of this variety are divided into table and universal. The culture contains a fairly large amount of starch - from 10 to 16%.

Eggplant

Although eggplant is a perennial crop, in the conditions of Russia it is cultivated as an annual. The stem of the plant is at first herbaceous, but from the age of 50 days it begins to grow stiff. The color of the nodes and stems is predominantly green, only in the upper part is pale purple or dark purple. The stem of the plant branches out and can grow up to 125 centimeters, depending on the variety. Eggplant leaves are quite large, can grow up to 35 cm in length, ovoid in shape. The plant blooms with large single or collected in a curl flowers of light purple or dark purple color.

The eggplant fruit is a multi-chambered berry about 15 cm long. Fruit weight can vary from 50 g to 2 kg. The color of ripe fruits is dark purple or light purple. Eggplants are widely used in cooking: all kinds of dishes are prepared from them and canned for the winter.

Tomato

Another well-known vegetable representative of the Solanaceae family is tomato. Previously, it was believed that this vegetable is harmful and causes extremely harm to the body. Today tomatoes are actively used in cooking, they make preparations and prepare all kinds of fresh salads with it. The homeland of the plant is South America. Since these vegetables of the Solanaceae family are generally recognized as healthy and tasty, they have spread throughout the world.

The root system of a tomato is quite powerful and deep. The stem is erect (lodging in some varieties).

The culture can reach a height of 2 meters, there are also artificially bred dwarf varieties, the height of which does not exceed 30 cm.

The leaves of tomatoes are pinnate, the plant blooms with small yellow flowers that gather in small racemose inflorescences. The culture is cultivated solely for the sake of the fruits, which, from the point of view of botany, are berries. In this regard, there is an endless dispute among specialists as to whether a vegetable or a fruit is still a tomato.

Pepper

Pepper is another familiar nightshade. It is a perennial shrub that is mainly cultivated as an annual crop. The stem of the plant at a young age is herbaceous, over time it coarsens and stiffens. The height of the plant depends on the variety and can vary from 20 to 125 cm (in protected ground it can even grow up to 3 meters). Pepper stem shapes can be bushy, semi-stem or standard.

Most of the total mass of the culture is foliage. The color of the sheets is from light to dark green. The flowers are characterized by a wheel-like shape. They can be paired, singles, or even tied up in bunches.

Pepper fruit can be of different colors, shapes and sizes. The weight can also be very different - from 5 to 200 grams. Pepper fruits are widely used for cooking and can be preserved for the winter.

Physalis

Physalis is a plant that grows to a height of about one and a half to two meters, dotted with a large number of lantern flowers. Flowers can be red, orange or yellow.

The culture usually blooms in May, the berries ripen closer to September. Physalis is usually referred to as ornamental plants. It is often grown as a decoration for garden and suburban areas, but some of its varieties are quite edible and find use in cooking. Outwardly, the physalis fruit looks a bit like a small tomato. Its color can be orange, yellow or green, depending on the specific variety taken.

Melon pear

The list of vegetables of the Solanaceae family can be supplemented by another name - melon pear. It is an evergreen shrub native to South America. It is grown for the sweet and edible fruit, which in its aroma and color resembles a lot of cucumber, melon or pumpkin. The culture was most widespread in New Zealand, Peru and Chile.

In Russian conditions, melon pear is practically not grown

Another name for a melon pear is pepino. This is a perennial semi-lignified shrub that grows up to one and a half meters. Pepino fruits differ in variety - they differ not only in shape and size, but also in color and taste.

Features of vegetable nightshade crops

Despite the prevalence of vegetables of the Solanaceae family, they may well cause certain harm to health, therefore, they should be taken with caution. So, for example, not everyone knows that this family includes not only safe potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, but also crops such as henbane, tobacco and datura, which many pharmacists classify as narcotic substances.

How Nightshade Affects Health

Some experts, including nutritionists, believe that consuming Solanaceae on a daily basis can be detrimental to health. An excess of vegetables in the diet that can be attributed to this family has a very versatile harmful effect:

• provokes joint pain or intensifies it;
• causes insomnia;
• creates problems with the gastrointestinal tract;
• helps to accelerate the aging process of the body;
• aggravates the course of a number of chronic diseases.

Researchers have not yet been able to convincingly prove such an effect of nightshade vegetables on the human body. Despite this, many advocates of the theory of the danger of nightshades are making efforts to reduce their number in their diet.

Effects of steroid alkaloids on the nervous system

Most of the ongoing medical research on nightshade products is related to a special substance that is included in their composition. We are talking about alkaloids.

Steroid alkaloids are especially dangerous because they can have a significant effect on the nervous system.They block the activity of choliesterase in nerve cells, which, in turn, leads to a violation of the control of muscle movement by the nervous system. Symptoms include muscle cramps, tremors, and cramps. However, if you take potatoes as an example, they simply do not contain enough steroid alocoloids to cause the above abnormalities. So the danger of nightshades (at least some of them) is exaggerated.

Sensitivity to nightshades

A certain category of people demonstrates an allergic reaction to vegetables of the nightshade family. Symptoms of hypersensitivity to such crops may include:

• rash;
• hives;
• nausea;
• itching;
• inflammation;
• muscle and joint pain;
• vomiting;
• diarrhea;
• bloating;
• heartburn.
• making excessive amounts of mucus.

The best way to solve the problem is to eliminate nightshades from the diet in principle. If there is no firm confidence in the presence of an allergic reaction or hypersensitivity to the product, but suspicions have already arisen, experts strongly recommend starting a food diary and writing down all the symptoms in it.

Other members of the family

Having found the answer to the question, Solanaceae are all the same vegetables, it will not be superfluous to mention that many medicinal and ornamental plants also belong to this family.

Medicinal Solanaceae

Although there are certain benefits to the body from medicinal crops of the Solanaceae family, they should be used with great care and in small dosages, since they are poisonous. This group can include:

• wolfberry (expectorant, diuretic, choleretic, also effective for skin conditions like psoriasis);
• belladonna (leaves and roots are excellent anesthetics and antispasmodics);
• henbane black (used as an analgesic, sedative);
• dope ordinary (antispasmodic and sedative effect);
• tobacco (used in folk medicine to treat skin diseases);
• and some others.

Few know that wolf berries are a very useful medicinal plant.

Decorative Solanaceae

Ornamental plants of the Solanaceae family are highly valued by gardeners. These include hybrid petunia, fragrant tobacco, ampelnaya calibrahoy and some other varieties of nightshade. All of them become an excellent decoration for a garden plot and can become a striking element of any landscape design.

Decorative tobacco blooms very beautifully

The Solanaceae family is incredibly diverse. Despite the ambiguous attitude towards it on the part of nutritionists and doctors, there is no convincing evidence that potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants or tomatoes can harm the body. Therefore, you should not be afraid to eat them, plant them in personal plots and use medicinal compositions based on nightshade plants.