Last summer, when my MIL visited us, she found the black nightshade plant growing around the trees in the pavement. This is a common plant in India. (Manathakkali/ Kamanchi/Kaachi soppu). The leaves and berries of the plant are used in cooking.

I’ve never noticed them before. These plants were also growing in the garden maintained by our apartment. When the gardener was weeding them out, MIL took a well grown plant and brought it home. It was peak of summer and the plant didn’t look healthy. There were lot of berries which were falling into the other pots nearby. Then it was fall and winter. The plant died.

This spring we noticed lot of plants growing fast in the pots in which I had planted garlic & dill.  Initially, we thought it was a weed but later recognised it. The berries that fell last summer had started growing now.

Harvested leaves – 21 May 2017

I had enough leaves to cook this recipe from Padhu’s Kitchen  🙂

Keerai Kootu Recipe-Manathakkali Keerai Kootu

Black night shade plant with berries – 26 May 2017

Now there are white spots/ discolouration on the leaves. I’ll update this post if I find the reason for discolouration.