Index / Search / Solanum melongena
§1 Plant
Solanum melongena L.
vernacular eggplant — species · Solanaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb, Subshrub
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Solanaceae Juss.
- Genus
- Solanum
§2a
Native status, by region
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
- PB Pacific Basin (except Hawaii) Introduced
- PR Puerto Rico Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 4 counties across 3 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Low
- Shade
- Medium
- Moisture use
- High
- Fire
- None
- Salinity
- Low
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- Low
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 17 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 365 min.
- Precipitation
- 60–80 in/yr
- pH range
- 5.5–7.2
- Root depth
- 24 in min.
- Fertility need
- High
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Stem
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Lifespan
- Short
- Mature height
- 4 ft
- Foliage texture
- Fine
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Dense
- Porosity (winter)
- Moderate
- Fruit colour
- Purple
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- Slight
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Indeterminate
- Seed abundance
- Low
- Seed begins
- Year Round
- Seed ends
- Year Round
- Spread rate
- None
- Stratify
- No
- Propagation
- seed, cuttings, container
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- Yes
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 4 counties across 3 states/territories.
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/SOME ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/2930617 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T13:49:14Z