some sort of Solanaceae Tobacco

[Stillman]

I assume this is a solanaceae sp maybe a tobaco assuming its the pesty wild tobacco you see in south east qld. has any one any idea of the scientific name?

the plant is in full shade looking really healthy even though it is a weed lol.

the leaf when crushed has a very pungent smell plant is very hairy.

What are your thoughts?

[Stillman]

I'm thinking this solanum mauritianum, is there any interesting reading about this plant. I was thinking about grafting egg plant to it.

[whitewind]

Oddly enough, I was also today discussing grafting with this as rootstock - probably tomatoes. How long lived are they? I've seen a few really enormous tree-like plants around. Does anyone know if alkaloids are transported around the plants much or do they tend to stay where they are produced?

[LikeAshesWeFade]

Wow that looks so much like my N. Rustica plants!

[danshaman]

they are everywhere around my place i back onto a bit of bush im constantly pulling them. the neighbours harbor a massiveone of these that hangs over our fence.

I believe they are somewaht poisonus to some wildlife

i also have a lot of wild tomatos around there to, wonder if some tomacco will turn up

[kadakuda]

i dont know this group well, but does look Nicotiana like. flowers will tell you better maybe.

I never understood the need to graft the tomatoes, they grow so damn fast and, at least here, are fairly resilient to pathogens.

[whitewind]

I never understood the need to graft the tomatoes, they grow so damn fast and, at least here, are fairly resilient to pathogens.

 

There is a massive "tomato tree" growing inside the Walt Disney greenhouses in Florida. I'm not sure whether it has been grafted or not, but apparently they harvested over 30,000 tomatoes in one year.

http://flyingcolors.typepad.com/flying_colors/travel/

[Alice]

Wow that looks so much like my N. Rustica plants!

 

Wait until it gets a bit bigger, they'll soon look nothing alike, other than leaf similarity. Your rustica leaves will get massive, while the solanum will turn into a tree.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Alice

[Stillman]

I would be very very surprised if its N rustica it was definitely deposited by birds and I can't imagine too many N rustica tobacco plants about up here.

"wild tobacco" the solanum grow to about 3 or 4 metres and live about 35-40 years from wikis. I have seen eggplant "trees" up north Ingham area that have 4 different varieties on the one solanum stock with a trunk 15cm in diameter. White wind, as far as I am aware like all grafts its "poisons" should not be passed on to a graft, however tomato plant leaves and eggplant leaves have a poisonous quality anyhow. The Italians in far north qld seem to love it as a stock. Have you done any research on grafting tomatoes, that is the coolest idea ever I wonder how many years you could get out of one plant. I am going to do some research on this. I have 3 plants of this in total the larger one I took a pic of and two little seedlings. I figure I will grow the plants up to about a metre or maybe a bit bigger, then start experimenting. I'll keep you posted.

[Stillman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-FfIBcNeu0

http://deepgreenpermaculture.com/diy-instructions/grafting-eggplant-onto-devil-plant/ Edited January 10, 2012 by Stillman

[whitewind]

I would be very very surprised if its N rustica it was definitely deposited by birds and I can't imagine too many N rustica tobacco plants about up here.

"wild tobacco" the solanum grow to about 3 or 4 metres and live about 35-40 years from wikis. I have seen eggplant "trees" up north Ingham area that have 4 different varieties on the one solanum stock with a trunk 15cm in diameter. White wind, as far as I am aware like all grafts its "poisons" should not be passed on to a graft, however tomato plant leaves and eggplant leaves have a poisonous quality anyhow. The Italians in far north qld seem to love it as a stock. Have you done any research on grafting tomatoes, that is the coolest idea ever I wonder how many years you could get out of one plant. I am going to do some research on this. I have 3 plants of this in total the larger one I took a pic of and two little seedlings. I figure I will grow the plants up to about a metre or maybe a bit bigger, then start experimenting. I'll keep you posted.

 

Someone made me a soup out of tomato leaves, claiming it was very nutritious. I was a bit surprised as I thought that the leaves were toxic, but we ate the soup and I had no effects from it - actually quite unusually as I was a bit concerned and I have a tendency to hypochondriasis. She said tomato leaves are commonly eaten in North Africa. This is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Plant toxicity

Like many other nightshades, tomato leaves and stems contain atropine and other tropane alkaloids that are toxic if ingested. Ripened fruit does not contain these compounds. Leaves, stems, and green unripe fruit of the tomato plant contain small amounts of the poisonous alkaloid tomatine. Use of tomato leaves in tea has been responsible for at least one death. However, levels of tomatine are generally too small to be dangerous.

Tomato plants can be toxic to dogs if they eat large amounts of the fruit, or chew plant material.

I kind of fancy the idea of grafting tomatoes, but I currently have no space and even less time. That video you posted made it look very doable though!