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Science Memes @mander.xyz

fossilesque @mander.xyz

1w ago

The Nightshade Family

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Tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes are native to the Americas. That means that before Transatlantic trade, there were no hot peppers in China, no potatoes in Ireland, and not tomatoes in Italy.
- That's why if you ask someone in Bologna how much tomato to add to your Bolognese they will chase you out of town with a kitchen knife.
  
  Which is weird, considering the dish was only invented in the 19th century, so tomatoes were absolutely available.
  Italian cuisine in general has way less tradition that people think.
  
  What did they use instead?
- Imagine many common Indian dishes without tomatoes or chilis. How about the popular trope of a Native American on horseback? Horses went extinct in the US many thousands of years before Europeans arrived with a different kind. It's amazing how quickly the cultural exchange happened so long ago.
  
  Tangential fact: syphillis originated in the Americas, likely from llamas. It's the only instance of a transmittable disease to be imported to the old world.
  This also makes me a bit annoyed at the show 'Apothecary Diaries" as it depicts syphillis existing in China in the 700AD

Tobacco would make a great name for a cat
- And how majestic that cat looks!
  \ Def the photogenic one in the family.
- A pouch of snus is called a "prilla" in Swedish, and one of my friends named their cat that.

People always look at you weird when you call Salsa a "concoction of nightshade fruits".
- Tbf, most of these would kind of suck in a salsa.
- Don't forget onion

wait, the cat is related?
- Its a family photo, they don't need to be blood relatives.
  
  so tobacco is not related?
- Yeah that one messes me up as well. Who of these birthed the cat? Who of these did the cat birth?
  
  You never heard about mom having kittens?

This is a default family in the Sims.

Fun fact potato berries are poisonous . They look just like black nightshade weeds which grows everywhere

Relevant Simpsons episode: https://youtu.be/DX08tDXPnz0

I can see a deadly link for nightshade for a few of them (like when potatoes turn green) but I've never heard of poisonous tomato facts... Are there any?
- Europeans used to think tomatoes were poisonous. They referred to them as poison apples.
  
  That's because they used pewter containers which were pretty common back in the day. The acidity from tomatoes would leech the lead out of the pewter and into the tomato so anyone eating this lead infused tomato product was gonna be in for a bad time.
  
  The poison apple thing is based on works of Galen, who, seeing how he lived in Europe in the 3rd century, has never seen a tomato, nor spoken to anyone who has. But he did describe a poisonous "wolf peach" that happened to match a tomato, so obviously that must be it.
- Many parts of the tomato plant are deadly to pets. Same goes for all nightshade members.
- any of the green parts of the tomato (even just the small bits inside the fruit) can kill small pets like hamsters or mice

Potatoes? One of the "family" just decided to be a tuber?
- Get this, they're so closely related that botanists created a plant that grows tomatoes above ground and potatoes below.
  
  Wild. TIL. Thanks.
- There is more to a plant than just the fruit, you know. It just happens that the species (cultivar?) of nightshade that we grow for potatoes has tasty, starchy roots, while others have tasty, zesty fruits, and then one of them is eggplant.
  
  Eggplant out here catching strays.
- Potatoes have fruits as well - they look like little dark green tomatoes. Toxic of course, because nightshade.
- ... what? No, they're all nightshade plants. Not the same plant, mind, but still the same family.
- Just be glad they didn't turn into crabs or cats.

And the devil's trumpet?

True

Here I was thinking tomatillos were separate

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