Japanese name: ナス（茄子、茄） Scientific name:Solanum melongena
[Overview]
A perennial cultivated as an annual crop.
The stems branch well and become small shrub-like.
The color of the stems and leaf stalks is, in most of those cultivated in Japan, a glossy blackish purple.
Some have leaves tinged with purple.
The flowers are borne in the leaf axils, white to pale purple, and the petals are 5–8-lobed.
There are many cultivars.
The fruit varies with the cultivar, being spherical, ovate, long-ovate and so on; the skin is usually blackish purple, but white or green ones also exist, and they turn yellow when ripe.
[History]
It has been seen in China since around the 5th century BC, and was first recorded in Japan in 750.
[Cultivation]
Care is needed because it is prone to problems from continuous cropping and to soil-borne diseases.
