Talk:Solanum

S. americanum

S. americanum is known as poroporo in New Zealand and I have re-edited as such. It is native to more than one country. See Landcare Research for an authorative reference. Alan Liefting 06:04, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Solanum sodomeum

Why does this photo appear in the article, yet the species is not included in the species list? Badagnani 03:47, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

• Solanum sodomeum is rejected under the relevant provisions of the ICBN, and should not be used. The reason for rejection, and the appropriate name for the taxon aren't obviously available on the web, but there's a Taxon article at JSTOR which might shed some light. Lavateraguy 19:48, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Native to?

The article should state which regions of the world solanum is native to. The Americas (tomato) and Asia (eggplant) would be two areas, I guess. Badagnani 04:05, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Major food crops

Shouldn't capsicum be included here, too? Surely it's at least as widely grown, if not more so, than eggplant?--H-ko 13:36, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

capsicum

I believe chile peppers (listed here as solanum capsicum) are actually in the capsicum Genus.Joe Schmedley 00:14, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

• That's correct. I've already removed Solanum capsicum from the list; there appears to be no such species. (The alternatives would be something other than a chilli pepper, or an unusual and rejected name for one of the chilli peppers.) Lavateraguy 19:41, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Solanum villosum

Wtf? http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/jobj/runjava.jobj?java=ctol.CTOLServer&method=printNamePage&accountref=987&NAMEID=11778. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?101393 Says that Solanum villosum is Red Nightshade. Should the article be changed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by LunaRain (talk • contribs) 01:32, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Tomatoes

Isn't it better to put all the tomatoes in their own genus Lycopersicon? Like that species here called Solanum lycopersicon, is called Lycopersicon esculentum in the literature I have access to. That literature is mainly from a professor at the University of Oslo ("Norsk flora" Lid & Lid edited by Reidar Elven). Otherwise is Capsicum in a own genus as mentioned above. Amdb73 (talk) 20:52, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

It turns out that when you study the DNA potatoes and tomatoes are more closely related to each other than either is to many other species of Solanum. With the modern preference that genera should be monophyletic clades that means either moving the tomato (back) into Solanum, or chopping Solanum into lots of pieces; no-one seems to care for the latter alternative.

You'll still find older literature using Lysopersicum, but most new literature uses Solanum for tomatoes. (WIkipedia follows the current consensus, not the historical consensus.) Lavateraguy (talk) 17:38, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

What about Peppers?

Peppers are also in the nightshade family aren't they? 186.177.185.21 (talk) 17:02, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

Sweet and Chile Peppers (Capsicum) are in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), but not the nightshade genus (Solanum). The various spices, including black pepper, in the genus Piper are very distantly related - they're near to Magnolia than to Solanum.