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enter image description here Very soft inside, small seeds, tastes bit sweet

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  • Looks like a not fully grown applegreen eggplant
    – Huangism
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 13:40
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    Those leaves look nothing like an eggplant's.
    – Marti
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 14:55
  • To the Questioner: Any descriptions or photos of the inside? What color, texture??
    – Catalyst
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 17:58
  • This might be better-suited to gardening.stackexchange.com, since they get questions like this all the time.
    – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 8:07

4 Answers 4

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It looks like either Pepino Melon (which I'm growing this year, and I tried to grow in 2015) or Tzimbalo, by the color, the dark striping and the leaves. Eggplant is related to both, but eggplant leaves leaves are broader and bigger than I see in the picture, usually (if not always). Pepino Melons are typically (not always) bigger and longer than Tzimbalo, but it's hard to tell from your picture which it is. I personally think it looks more like a Pepino Melon by the color, lack of sheen, and the way the leaves look.

It looks like the plant might have spider mites, by the speckling on the foliage. Mine had spider mites in 2015. If you do have spider mites, showering the plant with a shower nozzle on your hose every two or three days may help, at least if you're in a semi-arid to arid climate.

Pepino Melons are not melons, although some people think they taste like them. They're in the Solanum genus of the nightshade family.

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  • Thanks for naming some likely suspects! (I had no idea there were eggplant relatives that were sweet!)
    – Catalyst
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 10:08
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Looks like a small eggplant (Aubergine for you Brits), possibly not yet ripe. (Credit to Huangism, who said so first in a comment.) Botanically, it's a fruit (and a nightshade!!); culinarily a vegetable.

Note that the leaves of eggplants varies considerably. Here's a page (with a photo showing both leaves and a 'fruit'), where the leaves are IMHO fairly similar to those in the Questioner's photo: http://www.learn2grow.com/plants/solanum-melongena-listada-de-gandia-images-large-20148/

IMHO wonderful in Caponata; here's a recipe to try: http://theitaliandishblog.com/imported-20090913150324/2012/9/11/sicilian-caponata.html

Enjoy

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    This can't be correct: those leaves look nothing like an eggplant's, and eggplant also doesn't match "very soft inside, small seeds, tastes a bit sweet".
    – Marti
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 14:58
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    @Marti The fruit looks exactly like a Thai eggplant. They are round and green, not long and purple. Probably closer to the wild kind too - would have been called a purple sponge plant and not an eggplant otherwise. Unless you are sure from the PLANT that it can't be an eggplant, assume it is.
    – rackandboneman
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 8:05
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    @rackandboneman: a Thai eggplant presumably grows on a Thai eggplant plant, with Thai eggplant leaves. Eggplant leaves are roundish with curvy/bumpy edges - nothing at all like the smooth pointy leaves in the picture. So unless you're positing that a Thai eggplant is growing on a non-eggplant plant, this cannot possibly be an eggplant, Thai or otherwise. (Not to mention, if it's not only edible but slightly sweet when raw, it starts resembling an eggplant about as much as an apple resembles a Ferrari.)
    – Marti
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 14:42
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    I am not at all sure that all eggplant varieties have leaves that are similar to mainstream/supermarket eggplant. The Nightshade family shows wide morphology.
    – Catalyst
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 14:46
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    @Catalyst: every eggplant I've ever met (Thai included) has the same type of leaf. And that's still not addressing the fact that eggplants aren't, generally speaking, edible when raw. (Yeah, you'd have to eat a lot of raw eggplant to get solanine poisoning, but it's still not exactly palatable unless cooked.)
    – Marti
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 14:49
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Yes. I found out it is pepino melon!

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    Great! Can you accept Shule's answer as correct? (look for a checkmark under the voting arrows by her answer, click on it)
    – Erica
    Commented Dec 9, 2017 at 15:50
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To me it looks like a Mexican tomato. Tomatillos A native plant to Mexico. Tropical or warm weather plant.

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  • After the husk has fell of ready to eat.
    – J Bergen
    Commented Dec 10, 2017 at 0:53
  • It's not a tomatillo. The shape is wrong, the color is probably wrong (assuming the camera captured it wrong) and there's no husk.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Commented Jan 4, 2018 at 1:06

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