The Kuheuterpflanze, or nipple Zitzenförmiger nightshade plant (Solanum mammosum) is a species of subgenus Leptostemonum species of nightshade (Solanum). It grows in tropical areas, their original home is located in northern South America and possibly also to the Caribbean Islands. Due to its unusually shaped fruit it is withdrawn occasionally as an ornamental plant.
The species is only limited to tropical areas, it is native to northern South America and possibly on the Caribbean islands. It is frequently found in the Caribbean, Central America, between southern Mexico to Panama, and in an arc that stretches from Bolivia to the northwest to the Amazon Basin in Guyana. In the Amazon basin and the east coast of Brazil the species is found only rarely and sporadically. In some other areas to find it occasionally than imported plants, while quite rare in Africa, often in the territory of the East India Islands.
The Kuheuterpflanze grows in pastures, along roadsides, garbage dumps, as part of the Ruderalflora and farmland. The species prefers warm tropical climate with heavy rain at least temporarily. They usually can be found between sea level and altitude to 100 m, but they can also grow at high elevations to 1800 meters. Flowers and fruits are produced throughout the year without recognize that while a trend can.
It is assumed that has spread to the Americas the way early on by people who recognized the toxicity of the fruit and this made them useful. As the plant grows well in garbage dumps and similar sites, it could spread far as culture followers. Whether the evolutionary development of the “nipple” before or after this distribution took place, can not be said with certainty
Use
Because of the remarkable fruits Kuheuterpflanzen be taken occasionally as an ornamental plant. This led, inter alia, to a selection of plants that are less strongly armed with spines.
Guatemalan men who returned every January from the traditional pilgrimages to Esquipulas, had often strands of Tillandsia usneoides, in the bright yellow fruits of Kuheuterpflanze were woven, the hats. This tradition has probably an old Indian ritual of fertility due. According to reports from Peru, the plants are grown in order to use the poisonous fruits as rat poison. In Venezuela, to the fruits as against cockroaches and poison to catch fish have been used in medical applications have been reported from Honduras (against cold) and Panama (against maggot infestation).
Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuheuterpflanze
See Also: international flower delivery, florist