Stages: Solanum atropurpureum

One of the most unique and vicious-looking plants I've been growing this year is Solanum atropurpureum, with common names of "Purple Devil" and "Malevolence" . You can see a hint here of why it has these names:

What makes it most interesting to me right now is that I can show you all of the stages of fruiting, from bloom to ripe fruit.

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Not that I'll be eating the slightly larger than pea-sized fruits (not edible, possibly poisonous). Sure it's related to tomatoes and potatoes, but most plants in that family are not things you should eat.

Let's take a look:

That's a couple months of development compressed into six photos!

What I really like about this plant are the spikes:

Not only are they on the stems, but on the leaves. Both top:

And bottom:

I didn't mention earlier, but all of these photos were taken on the same branch:

The ripe fruits are at the bottom, while the blooms are at the top. Move along the branch and it's like jumping forward a week at each step (or backward if you started at the bottom and moved up).

An interesting plant for sure, but I don't know yet if I'll grow it again next year. Maybe along the south wall, which is a very tough spot.

It looks like this plant can handle itself though.

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