Solanum ellipticum

Other Names : Native Tomato, Potato Bush, Wild Gooseberry, merne awele-awele
a small, fast-growing, waxy-looking spreading shrub or herbaceous plant which can reach about 30 cm in height, and spread to about 1 m in diameter. It usually grows next to creeks, either on heavy clay or on sandy soils. It occurs over most of dry tropical and subtropical Australia.

Special Precautions of Solanum ellipticum

The plant is similar in habit to the poisonous S.quadriloculatum so experimentation if you are unsure is not worth the risk!.

Health Benefits and Uses of Solanum ellipticum

The fruits prolifically the year after fire or good rains. It is green with purplish stripes, becoming pale yellow when ripe. The fruit have a pungent smell, and the plant can be smelled from some distance away when the fruit are ripe. Like the other "bush tomatoes", S. ellipticum fruit are edible raw or cooked. Also features significantly in Aboriginal mythology and culture.