FoI
Red Pea Eggplant
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Red Pea Eggplant
ative Photo: Ramachandran
Common name: Red Pea Eggplant, Thai nightshade • Marathi: Mothiringnee, Thoodalam • Tamil: தூதுவளை Tutuvaḷai, Nittidam, Sandunayattan, Surai • Malayalam: Tutavalam, Putharichunda, Putricunta, Puttacunta, Tudavalam • Telugu: Alarkapatramu, Kondavuchinta, Mullamusti • Kannada: ಕಾಕಮುಂಜಿ Kakamunji, ಅಂಬುಸೊಂಡೆಬಳ್ಳಿ Ambusondeballi, ಹಂಬುಸೊಂಡೆ Hambusonde, ಹಬ್ಬುಸೊಂಡೆ Habbusonde, ಕಾಕಮುಂಚಿ Kaakamunchi, ಕಾಕಮಂಚಿ Kaakamanchi • Oriya: bryhoti • Sanskrit: Achuda, अग्निदमनी Agnidamani, अग्नि दामिनी Agnidamini, Alarka, Vallikantakarika
Botanical name: Solanum trilobatum    Family: Solanaceae (Potato family)

Red Pea Eggplant is a slender prickly scrambling shrub, with prickles curved, broad-based, yellowish and numerous along the stems, otherwise almost hairless. Leaves are rounded-ovate in outline, bluntly 3-5-lobed, 2-7 cm long, 1-4 cm wide, hairless or slightly star-shaped, with a few prickles along the leaf-stalk and midrib. Flowers are borne in 3-9-flowered clusters in leaf-axils, on short flower-cluster-stalk. Flowers are 1.2-1.6 cm long, deeply lobed, star-shaped-velvet-hairy outside, purple, reflexed; stamens protruding, anthers 7 mm long, yellow. Flower-stalks are 1-2 cm long, widely divergent. Sepal-cup 3 mm long, with narrow teeth, sparsely velvet-hairy outside. Fruits are scarlet, round, about 1.5 cm in diameter. Red Pea Eggplant is native to India, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam.

Identification credit: Ramachandran Photographed in Chennai & Surat, Gujarat.

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