TulaneLSU's Top 10 photos of the red soda apple, Solanum capsicoides

27th of April in the year of our Lord 2020
Friends,

I wanted to share with you an interesting plant I found in City Park today. Before today I had never seen such a plant. Google indicates to me that it is like the red soda apple, a poisonous yet beautiful plant native to eastern Brazil. It found its way to south Florida in the 1980s, but now is found throughout warm environs. It is considered a bad invasive species.

Certain websites indicate you should not eat it. Apparently, the fruit's flesh is poisonous, but an excellent cockroach bait, which is why some call it the cockroach berry. Its leaves look like tomato leaves, but its thorns are vicious. While admiring this plant, I was stuck by one. So far, I am still alive, and I hope to remain so.

Do any of you have stories about the red soda apple?







Yours,
TulaneLSU


1st of May in the year of our Lord 2020
Friend,

Your enthusiasm for the plant encouraged me to return to the place of the red soda apple plants and take some more pictures. I will alert you that this is the most thorough, highest quality photo collection available online of this plant. I present to you TulaneLSU's Top 10 photos of the red soda apple:





















Faith, Hope, and Love,
TulaneLSU