Bizarre Fruit

A few days ago, I popped out to water my potatoes and was really surprised to notice some tomato style fruits growing.  The plants had recently flowered and the "tomatoes" had appeared from the flower buds.  As this is only the second year I have grown potatoes, I still don't have much idea about them.

The more I looked at them, I suddenly remembered my growing attempts last year.  Having brushed against the plants a bit too much, I developed a really bad, itchy rash on my arms.  When I went to the chemist, the pharmacist told me that potatoes belong to the nightshade family which also includes, amongst others, tomatoes, aubergine and deadly nightshade.  Obviously, some are more toxic than others!

Suddenly the fact that my potatoes were growing tomatoes made perfect sense.  Obviously we view the bulbous root of potatoes as the vegetable but the plant also sometimes produces small green, tomato like fruit as well.  Having investigated further, apparently the potato fruit has quite high concentrations of poisonous solanine, so best avoided.