Passion Berry
Solanum cleistogamum (Solanaceae Family)
A native of the
central desert regions and another of Australia's many and varied
wild tomatoes, Passion Berries are a real sweet surprise. This
prickly ground cover has mid-green soft leaves, about 2cm wide and
5cm long, and are generally incurved. Small, insignificant white to
lilac flowers are often hidden in it's tangled mass of creeping
branches.
The amazingly sweet and aromatic fruit are generally 1-1.5cm in
diameter and hang in great numbers right at soil level under the
plant. The fruit are ripe when creamy yellow, and taste somewhere
between banana, caramel and vanilla. When the fruit fully ripen and
dry, they fall off the plant, where they provide a delicacy for
every small animal, bird or reptile that are attracted to the sweet
fruit.
In the outback,
Passion Berries have fallen foul of feral animals such as goats,
donkeys, horses, cattle and camels, who can smell the ripe fruit
from kilometres away. Whereas in the past emus, upon eating the
fruit, did not fully digest the seed, but passed the scarified seed
out with it's own all organic fertilizer! Because of the introduced
grazers, with their double stomachs which fully digest the seed,
Passion Berries have become rare in most of the centre. Over the
past few years, the Quarmbys have introduced this species into
cultivation, and produce Passion Berries at Reedy Creek as well as
through the indigenous communities.
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