This spiny, Jurassic looking critter is my first experience with a naranjilla plant. If you think you see a family resemblance, you are correct — this is indeed a nightshade.
It’s actually really entertaining to compare the members of the family. Alongside my Pandora eggplant seedling, the similarities are quite striking, even if this particular cousin appears to have passed a little too close to a plutonium stockpile. I have also commented at length about the other members of the family, in that sense because all produce nicotine.
Like its cousins, this plant is native to South America, and the Andes in particular. Unlike many of them, it is a perennial and requires a long growing season.
In this case, no one will be smoking naranjilla leaves, but we do hope to be enjoying this plant’s orange colored, sweet-tart fruits, which are said to also be loaded with vitamin c.
Then there is the mad scientist in me, which will enjoy watching this thing grow longer and denser spines.