This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Solanum aviculare

David: Don't knock the North! Remember Logan and Inverewe? I.e., it
all (well, mostly) depends on how close you are to the sea. I'm
perched right over the Solway so we rarely get much frost. As a
result, I can grow stuff which friends in inland Devon and Dorset
can't.

I don't think I've ever grown actual S. aviculare. I certainly don't
at the moment. Though the general growth habit as you describe it
sounds very similar to my S.a. latifolium, the flowers definitely
don't. S.a.l. has pale blue-mauve flowers and they're not flat but
hooded or capped: more shy charm than extrovert razzmatazz. (not many
solanums go in for shy charm!) I wonder if this difference keys out in
a New Zealand flora. Does any Kiwi out there happen to know? Or would
he/she be kind enough to look'em up and tell us the results? I
certainly agree about salty winds: definitely not appreciated. S.
laciniatum doesn't like'em either. Makes you wonder how these plants
get on in the wild in places like Three Kings Island!

S.a.l. doesn't self-sow much here. Some years, not at all. Never in
the swathes of S.laciniatum. Which is a virtue or a vice, depending on
whether you've saved seed and on whether an exceptionally cold snap
wipes out all your original plants.

Would you be interested in a swap of seeds of S. a. and S. a. l.??

Tim Longville
Celia Eddy
celia@eddy.u-net.com
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index