Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and transplanting scarlet eggplant was therefore recommended for such an additive intercropping
system, aimed at full yield of scarlet eggplant with additional cowpea for food, income, or fodder.
978
Three of the four cultivar groups that are recognized within
Solanum aethiopicum
are impor-
tant for Africa:
•
Gilo Group
. The fruits are consumed. This is the most important cultivar group; it includes cultivars
with smooth fruits that are popular in West and East Africa and cultivars with more or less strongly
ribbed fruits. Mature leaves are covered with stellate hairs and are generally not prickly; fruit is
subglobose to ellipsoid, 2.5-12 cm long. Depending on the location, preference is given to cultivars
with pure white, creamy white, pale green, dark green, brown, or purple fruits or cultivars with
fruits striped in two or more colors. Cultivars of Gilo group are grown throughout tropical Africa
in the more humid areas.
•
Shum Group
. Only the leaf is used (the fruits being too bitter). This has fairly small, subspherical
fruits and small glabrous leaves. It is distributed throughout Central Africa, as well as in western
equatorial Africa, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana.
•
Kumba Group
. This has much-lobed glabrous fruits that are pumpkin shaped and only slightly bit-
ter. When ripe, they are light green to red-orange—very ornamental and unusual looking with lots
of bumps. Both leaves and fruits are eaten. The species is restricted to the subsahelian region from
Senegal, Mali, Bukina Faso, Niger to northern Nigeria and parts of Cameroon.
Members of the plant Family Solanaceae often contain toxic steroidal alkaloids; therefore, hor-
ticultural breeding has to be carefully done in order not to introduce toxic cultivars by mistake.
SOLANUM INCANUM
Botanical Name —
Solanum incanum
L.
Synonyms —
Solanum sanctum
L.,
Solanum esculentum
Drege.,
Solanum subexarmatum
Dunal.,
Solanum delagoense
Dunal.,
Solanum beniense
De Wild.
Family —
Solanaceae
Common Name —
Bitter apple
African Names —
Hausa: gautan-kuuraa, aata, kulufiitaa; Rwanda: intobo umucuu; Igbo:
angara-muo; Kihene: ndula; Mizaramo: bwantula, bwanhula, mtula; Kibende: ntufululu; Kirufiji:
