Description
Eggplant or aubergine is grown for its edible fruit. The fruit is widely used in cooking, most notably as an important ingredient in dishes such as moussaka and ratatouille. As a member of the genus Solanum, it is related to both the tomato and the potato. The eggplant is a delicate, tropical perennial often cultivated as a tender or half-hardy annual in temperate climates. The stem is often spiny. The flower is white to purple, with a five-lobed corolla and yellow stamens. The egg-shaped glossy purple fruit has white flesh with a meaty texture. Botanically classified as a berry, the fruit contains numerous small, soft seeds which, though edible, taste bitter because, as a relative of tobacco, they contain nicotinoid alkaloids.