The nightshade family includes about 2.5 thousand species of representatives. In the wild, such plants are most often found in South and Central America. In Eurasia, there are no more than 45 varieties of representatives of this family.
Most often, nightshade is a perennial or annual herb. Some shrubs or shrubs belong to this family. There are also several varieties of nightshade trees. All plants of this family can be divided into two large groups: wild-growing and cultivated. In Russia, it is nightshade that form the basis of all landings in suburban areas. Most often, domestic summer residents grow five representatives of this family.
List of nightshade vegetables
The most popular vegetables of this group among Russian gardeners are:
Tomatoes
pepper;
eggplant;
potatoes;
physalis.
Of course, all these plants, as representatives of the same family, have a lot of common features. The fruits of these crops may be berries. This species from the above list of nightshade vegetables includes eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes. Other cultivated plants of the family form a box as a fruit. In domestic gardens from this group of nightshade peppers and physalis are grown.
Despite the fact that the fruits of such crops are berries or boxes, they can still be attributed to vegetables. After all, it is in that quality that they are used for preparing all kinds of dishes and winter preparations.
Flowers of representatives of the nightshade family - tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc. - have five petals and are soldered corollas. A distinctive feature of nightshade, including cultural, among other things, is the fact that all of them, without exception, contain a toxic substance - corned beef. In the tissues of wild plants of this family it can be very much. Cultured nightshade also often contain a fairly large amount of corned beef. However, in edible parts of this substance, usually there is still not very much.
Despite the presence of corned beef, eating solanaceous fruit can bring tremendous benefits to the human body. The pulp of tomatoes, peppers, physalis, eggplant contains just a huge amount of all kinds of amino acids, trace elements and vitamins.
All nightshade vegetables, with the exception of potatoes, Russian summer residents are grown by seedlings. In the wild, such crops usually grow in fairly hot climates. If pepper, eggplant, tomatoes or physalis are planted directly in the soil, in the future they simply will not have time to ripen before the cold weather.
Next, consider what each plant in the presented list of nightshade vegetables is characterized by.
Tomatoes
This cultivated plant is perhaps the most popular after the potato representative of nightshade in domestic summer residents. Most Russian gardeners grow tomatoes in large quantities from year to year.
For the whole time of cultivation by a man, breeders simply bred a huge number of tomato varieties. If desired, early, mid-ripening, late tomatoes can be grown on a suburban area. On sale there are seeds of this culture of salad varieties intended for fresh consumption or bred specifically for canning.
A tomato is a vegetable whose meaty, juicy fruits can have a red, yellow, or orange color. Some genetically modified varieties of tomatoes are purple, blue or, for example, black. However, in Russia such varieties are not cultivated. The cultivation of genetically modified crops in our country, as you know, is prohibited by law.
Pepper
In their suburban areas, summer residents in Russia can grow two main varieties of such nightshade. It can be sweet or bitter peppers. Varieties of such crops by breeders, like tomatoes, have been bred. The fruit of the peppers is a box with fleshy or not very walls. In sweet varieties it is usually quite large, in bitter ones it is smaller. Inside the capsule, pepper has many seeds. Externally, the planting material of this culture is very similar to tomato seeds.
Like tomatoes, both varieties of pepper - both sweet and bitter - can be used in the preparation of salads, winter preparations, first and second courses. Young fruits of such nightshade have a pale green color. As they mature, they turn bright red. Sometimes summer residents also grow yellow peppers or dark green.
Eggplant
Russian vegetable gardeners also grow these vegetables of the nightshade family very willingly. Cultivated eggplants differ from pepper and tomatoes primarily in the shape of leaves and fruits. The aerial part of these plants is characterized by a lighter color than the other solanaceous garden greens with a bluish tint. Eggplants grow not too high. Their flowers can be white or lilac.
Eggplant leaves are more rounded than tomato and pepper. The fruits of this member of the family are in most cases elongated and have a deep dark purple color. Varieties of eggplant breeders have also been bred a lot. Fresh, unlike tomatoes and peppers, the fruits of this culture are not consumed. Eggplants are used mainly in winter preparations or just fried.
Potatoes
Eggplant, peppers, physalis and tomatoes - these are vegetables in which the fruits are eaten. Potato is an exception in this regard. This representative of nightshade at summer residents, of course, is no less popular than tomatoes. Most of the vegetable gardens in Russia are occupied by this particular cultivated plant. Edible in potatoes are tubers that develop in the soil. The berries of this culture have a very unpleasant taste, contain a lot of corned beef and are not eaten.
Potato belongs to the nightshade family and is a low plant that requires careful care during the cultivation process. In order for this culture to grow many large tubers, it must be loosened and spud, periodically watered and weed.
The main varieties of potatoes, like tomatoes, there are three - early, mid-ripening and late. The tubers of this plant can have white, red, yellow, pink. They are eaten fried, boiled, stewed, baked. In winter harvesting, unlike tomatoes, eggplant and bell pepper, potatoes are not used. The tubers of this plant are able to remain fresh until spring when laid in cool, ventilated rooms.
Together with potatoes intended for human consumption, summer residents usually place the seed material of this crop in the cellars - medium-sized tubers. In spring, such a potato is dried, germinated and planted in holes in the area with the addition of ash and manure.
Physalis
This vegetable from the nightshade family has a Latin name: Phýsalis. In Russian, the pronunciation of this word is incorrectly fixed with an emphasis on the second syllable, although it is more correct to do it on the first.
In contrast to the cultivated nightshade considered above, this plant can be met quite rarely in gardens and kitchen gardens. However, some summer residents physalis still grow. The fruit of this culture is a box formed from fused sepals, and may have a red, yellow or orange color.
In Russia, the most commonly grown are glutinous physalis, also called Mexican tomato. Taste the fruits of this plant have a rich pleasant vegetable. Also, domestic summer residents often grow strawberry, very fragrant physalis. The fruits of this variety are juicy and sweet. They are valued by gardeners primarily for a pleasant strawberry aroma and taste.
In any case, the fruits of physalis are considered a dietary product. They include vitamins, trace elements, amino acids, and they have many useful properties. How to eat physalis correctly, since it is a plant for domestic gardens is still a rare enough culture, of course, not all Russian summer residents know. In fact, everything is extremely simple. There is physalis, for example, fresh. Also, winter preparations are often made from the fruits of this plant. That is, physalis is used in exactly the same way as tomatoes and peppers.
Other members of the family
The nightshade vegetables from the list above are the most popular cultivated plants among Russian summer residents. However, many other members of the family are quite widespread in our country. Such plants cannot be considered cultural, but their person also uses them quite actively.
The names of vegetables included in the group of nightshade grown in Russia, we found out. These are tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes and physalis. The most famous wild plants of the nightshade family are:
black nightshade;
belladonna ordinary;
black henbane;
Datura ordinary.
Black nightshade
This wonderful plant is found almost everywhere in Russia. Officially nightshade black refers to weeds. Indeed, the trouble for gardeners, clogging the planting of potatoes, it can deliver a lot. This plant reaches heights, depending on development conditions, 80-90 cm.
Healthy vegetables of the nightshade family in Russian summer residents make up the basis of winter preparations, and are also widely used for preparing first courses. Nightshade, of course, cannot be classified as very popular garden crops. However, the berries of this weed can still be eaten.
Many summer residents even specially leave for this purpose several large bushes of nightshade on the site. The berries of this plant are black (sometimes yellow), in ripe form they are very sweet and taste good. You can eat them fresh. Some summer residents also collect nightshade for baking, for example, pies. The green berries of this plant are inedible, contain a lot of corned beef and have an extremely unpleasant taste.
Belladonna ordinary
Popularly, this herb is better known as belladonna. Belladonna vulgaris is a herbaceous perennial. Like datura and henbane, it is a poisonous plant. In Russia, belladonna is found mainly only in the Crimea. Also, this representative of the nightshade family is common in the Caucasus and the Carpathians.
Belladonna's berries are juicy and very poisonous. Eating them can cause excruciating death. Belladonna is widely used by man primarily in medicine in the manufacture of various kinds of drugs.
Black henbane
This poisonous plant in Russia can be found in the south of Siberia and the Urals, in the Central European part. It is also common in the Caucasus, North America, Africa and Australia. The fruit of this plant is a box with seeds similar to poppy seeds. There are a lot of alkaloids in different parts of bleached. To get poisoned, it is enough just to smell the flower of this plant. Poisonous honey is also collected by bees from bleached, and even the meat of animals that have eaten it. This plant is used in medicine.
Datura ordinary
This plant also belongs to the group of poisonous and is distributed throughout Russia. In height, an ordinary dope can reach 1.5 m. Its roots are rod, powerful, and the stems are erect, bare, branching. Datura leaves are pointed, ovate, coarse. The flowers of this representative nightshade are white and emit a stupefying smell. Hence the name of the plant.
Datura fruits are a four-nest box covered with spikes. Like belladonna, Datura vulgaris is widely used in medicine.
Tobacco
Sometimes this nightshade crop can be grown in summer cottages. But more often it is still cultivated by large agricultural enterprises. There are several varieties of tobacco. Such plants can be grown herbaceous perennials or annuals, shrubs and shrubs.
The green mass of tobacco, in addition to minerals, pectins, acids or alkalis, contains resins and nicotine. This plant is used, as you know, mainly in the manufacture of cigarettes. Nicotine tobacco can also be used in medicine.