I wrote previously about the scary spiky “Little Shop of Horrors” looking plant that Praew planted in her keyhole garden, and now that it is bearing fruit, I understand what it is and why she referred to it as “a kind of a tomato”. We had stumbled across a packet of seeds for a plant a while back, and while Praew said it is a common decorative plant around, I couldn’t get past the name (“nipple fruit”).

Now that I see the fruit growing on this spiky plant, I am sure that is what Praew planted:

Even the Latin name, Solanum mammosum, is based on the Latin word for “breast” (“mamma”). As a member of the nightshade family, it is a close relative of the tomato. I’ve read that although it is poisonous, the unripe fruit can be cooked up and eaten like a vegetable. I probably won’t be trying that anytime soon unless I get some more authoritative sources on how to make it not-poisonous.