'Gbognome' Nightshade Greens

Solanum macrocarpon Origin: Togo Improvement status: Cultivar Seeds per packet: ~25 Germination tested 09/2025: 80% Life cycle: Annual Featured in Dr. William Woys Weaver's book 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From, this fascinating plant has rarely been offered for sale or even trade in this country. Originally from Togo, though the species itself is believed to originate in India, Gbognome (pronounced bog-NO-may) produces beautiful green fruits ripening to yellow, which are supposedly edible (if very bitter) when picked and cooked in their green stage, but these are not the prime attraction. Gbognome is grown for its tasty and nutritious young leaves. Dr. Weaver, from whom we got our seeds, advises cooking the leaves (which develop thorns on the spine once too mature) in water like spinach and reserving the cooking stock as a base for soup. His wonderful book contains a few great recipes for this plant. When Dusty grew gbognome in Minnesota for the first time he was "thoroughly an