Solanum caripense

Dunal

Tzimbalo, Pepino lloron

SolanaceaeFruitPotential hazards — see below

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What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

Fruit. The fruit, which is hardly larger than a cherry, is eagerly eaten by local people. It has a sweetish flavour, which makes it palatable despite having little flesh and numerous seeds. A juicy fruit that is thirst-quenching. The yellow-green, globose fruit has violet-colorued longitudinal stripes; it is up to 40mm in diameter.

Known Hazards

Although providing many well-known foods for people, including the potato, tomato, pepper and aubergine, most species in this genus also contain toxic alkaloids. Whilst these alkaloids can make the plant useful in treaing a range of medical conditions, they can also cause problems such as nausea, vomiting, salivation, drowsiness, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, weakness and respiratory depression. Unless there are specific entries with information on edible uses, it would be unwise to ingest any part of this plant.

Where to Find It

A tropical plant. It grows on wooded slopes and along streams. It grows between 800-3,800 m above sea level. It can tolerate light frosts.

America, Andes*, Central America, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, South America*, Venezuela,

Countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, Suriname, El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela

How to Identify

A climbing or sprawling plant. It grows 2 m long. The fruit is round and 3 cm across. They are like pepino.

How to Grow

Plants can be grown from seeds.

Propagation: Seed - sow in trays in a nursery. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and grow them on fast. Plant them out when 10cm or more tall. Cuttings of half-ripe wood. Very easy, the cuttings root within a couple of weeks.

Medicinal Uses

The tuber is halucinogenic.

Other Uses

The plant is used in breeding programmes to improve the pepino (Solanum muricatum).

Wikipedia

Source ↗

Solanum caripense is a species of evergreen shrub native to South America and grown for its edible fruit. Rare in cultivation, it is known as tzimbalo. The fruit closely resembles the related pepino (Solanum muricatum), and it has been speculated that Solanum caripense may be the wild ancestor of the pepino. Like the pepino, the tzimbalo is a relative of other nightshades cultivated for their edible fruit, including the tomato (S. lycopersicum), the naranjilla (S. quitoense) and the eggplant (S. melongena). Solanum caripense is part of the Basarthrum clade within the broader Potato clade. The fruit is infrequently cultivated in its native range of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Chile but has been rediscovered on a small scale by heirloom gardeners elsewhere in the world.

Production

Plants produce fruit within 1-2 years from seed.

Other Information

The fruit are popular. They are cultivated.

Notes

There are about 1400 Solanum species. It will form hybrids with the pepino Solanum muricatum.

Names & Synonyms

Berriadores, Chinpalu yuyu, Cimbalo, Clavique, Durunsoga, Llorones, Simbailo

References (16)

Facciola, S., 1998, Cornucopia 2: a Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications, p 236
Fern, K., 2012, Tropical Species Database http://theferns.info/tropical/
Kermath, B. M., et al, 2014, Food Plants in the Americas: A survey of the domesticated, cultivated and wild plants used for Human food in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. On line draft. p 815
Lopez-Diago, D. & Garcia, N., 2021, Wild edible fruits of Colombia. Biota ColomBiana 22 (2) p 52
Martin, F.W., C.W. Campbell and R.M. Ruberté, 1987, Perennial edible fruits of the tropics - An inventory. United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Agriculture Handbook No. 642. Washington, D.C., USA.
National Research Council, 1989, Lost crops of the Incas: little-known plants of the Andes with promise for worldwide cultivation. National Academy Press, Washington DC, U.S.A.
NYBG Herbarium "edible"
Roa, J. A. G. & Boada, D. S. G., 2018, Fundación para el Fortalecimiento de la Fruticultura y Plantas Alimenticias no Convencionales en Colombia.
Samuels, J., 2015, Biodiversity of Food Species of the Solanaceae Family: A Preliminary Taxonomic Inventory of Subfamily Solanoideae. Resources 2015, 4. 277-322
Solan. syn. 8. 1816
Torre, de la, L., et al, 2008, Enciclopedia de las Plantas Útiles del Ecuador. Herbario QCA. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. p 590
Van den Eynden, V., et al, 2003, Wild Foods from South Ecuador. Economic Botany 57(4): 576-603
Van den Eynden, V., 2004, Use and management of edible non-crop plants in southern Ecuador, Ph D dissertation. p 108
Van den Eynden, V., et al, 2004, Regional and ecological variations of wild edible plants in southern Ecuador. Lyonia. 7(2)
Van den Eynden, V., & Cueva, E., 2008, Las plantas en la alimentacion. Enciclopedia de las Plantas Utiles del Ecuador. Herbario QCA & Herbario AAU. Quito & Aarhus. 2008: 62–66
Wikipedia