Solanum linnaeanum

Solanum linnaeanum, the apple of Sodom, devil’s apple, or in Afrikaans the bitterappel (bitter apple) or gifappel (poison apple), has certainly made an impression on people, judging from its list of negative connotation or derogatory names. In contrast, its specific epithet, linnaeanum, is illustrious: It honours Carl Linnaeus, the eighteenth century Swedish botanist who laid the foundations of the binomial biological naming scheme used worldwide today. Nightshade and apple of Sodom are names shared with several other species of the Solanum genus. Scientifically the plant used to be called S. hermannii and S. sodomeum at different times.

S. linnaeanum is a spiny, single-stemmed shrub that grows to 1 m in height. The prickles of about 1,2 cm long are yellow, pale green or sometimes reddish in colour. They are straight and sharp, present all over the plant.

The species grows in a broad coastal strip from Clanwilliam to the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape through the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal.

The habitat is scrub or thicket on rocky slopes and flats. The plants are also found on disturbed or poorly managed land. Where the clearing of alien vegetation left earlier fynbos veld bare near Gansbaai, this plant invaded. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Privett and Lutzeyer, 2010; Manning, 2007; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; iSpot; http://redlist.sanbi.org).