Rob's plants
home garden plants wildlife seed photos
plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook

Solanum pyracanthon

 
Solanum pyracanthon
porcupine tomato
Even the fruit is protected by thorns
Solanum pyracanthon
Papery-purple flowers in July

Synonym(s) Solanum pyracanthos, Solanum pyracanthum
Common name porcupine tomato
Family solanaceae
Life cycle tender perennial
Flowers purple (summer)
Size 18-24"
Light sun-part shade
From seed germinate with bottom heat
detailed seed-starting info below
Seed ripenslate October

Another spiny solanum species. This one's yellow spines emerge from all the major leaf veins. Among the most striking in the species, at least that I've grown. As you can see in the photo above, they are a favorite with flea beetles - just like their edible eggplant cousins.

porcupine tomato
Striking color combination, courtesy of the shiny pink potato beetle larva contrasting with the orange spines
Solanum pyracanthon
porcupine tomato
Star shape on the flowers' backsides

This plant used to grow in our garden, but it slipped away...

Read the other spiny solanums in our garden

One or more images of this plant are included in my stock photo catalog

About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Solanum pyracanthon


Visitors to this page have left the following comments


Seed-starting details for this plant

  1. Seed from '05 trade. Baggy 75F (100%G, 6-12d)
  2. Seed from '05 trade. Baggy 75F (80%G, 8-12d)
    Seed from '06 garden (brown, instead of tan, seeds). Baggy 75F (36%G, 10-15d)
  3. Seed from '07 garden. Baggy 75F (79%G, 7-12d)
  4. Seed from '08 garden. Baggy 75F (9%G, 12d).
    Seed from '06 garden. Baggy 75F (30%G, 11-13d)
  5. Seed from '08 garden. Baggy 75F (4%G, 9-11d)

In 2007 the traded batch germinated better. Perhaps my seed did not have time to properly ripen. Likewise, the 2009 seed had poor germination, in this case perhaps because it was harvested after several hard freezes.


I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.

Your name

Your comments