**I LOVE plants that can be neglected and still thrive well!** **GROWN ON OUR FARM HERE IN TENNESSEE** Herb: Kangaroo Apple Latin name: Solanum aviculare Family: Solanaceae (Nightshade Family, Potato Family) From New Zealand (Zone 7b), this is a beautiful and tender soft-wooded shrub 4'~6' tall with large, shiny, lobed leaves and glabrous stems, sometimes tinged purple. A fast-growing species, hardy in most soil types!!! Showy indigo-purple flowers to 5cm across, followed by interesting yellow tinged orange shaped fruits. Use as a half-hardy annual in the north. Can also be overwintered but because it is so easy from seed, there may be little point. Germination Instructions: Easy, warm germinator. The flowers from this plant are hermaphrodite (has both male and female organs)! Medicinal use of Kangaroo Apple: A source of steroids, much used in the pharmaceutical industry. The unripe berries are the richest source. Edible parts of Kangaroo Apple: Fruit - raw or cooked. It must be thoroughly ripe because the unripe fruit is poisonous. It can be used as a sweet fruit or as a vegetable. Best harvested once it has fallen from the plant, the fruit will then have lost its unpleasant acidity. The fruit is sickly sweet! This is an open, upright to spreading, evergreen shrub or small tree. All green parts of the plant are poisonous, and so is the unripe fruit. Foliage Characteristics: evergreen, Foliage Color: green, Flower Characteristics: showy, Flower Color: blues, purples, whites, Tolerances: heat humidity #1235 * We offer combine shipping ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!****