Arkopomilorka - black nightshade

Wild green.

Name - Origin
Cypriot name of food
Αρκοπομηλορκά ή πομηλόχορτον. Arkopomilorká or pomilóhorton.
Greek name - description

It is a medicinal native green (Great Encyclopedia of Cyprus, vol. 2, entry αρκοπομηλορκά,η, 303).

Language remarks

Scientific name: Solanum nigrum/Solanaceae (Yangoullis 2009, entry πομιλόχορτον,το, 375).

English: Black nightshade, of the Strychnidae family (Great Encyclopedia of Cyprus, vol. 2, entry αρκοπομηλορκά,η, 303)

Processing method

It is consumed boiled.

Nutritional Value and Importance in the Diet of Cypriots

This plant contains solanine, a toxic alkaloid, which is mainly concentrated in its fruit. Only the tender shoots are consumed.

Time period
1860 - 21st c.
Bibliography

Gennadios P. G. (1914), Phytological Dictionary: Containing the names, nativity and life of more than a thousand plants, including those cultivated for their usefulness or cultivated by the people, whose history, cultivation, products and diseases are also described, From the Printing House of Paraskevas Leoni, Athens.

Yangoullis K. G. (2009), Thesaurus of the Cypriot dialect. Interpretative, Etymological, Phraseological and Nomenclatural Dictionary of the Medieval and Modern Cypriot Dialect, Theopress Publications, Nicosia.

Pavlides A. (ed.) (1985), Great Encyclopedia of Cyprus, vol. 2, Filokypros, Nicosia.

Researcher/Recorder

Kyriaki Panteli, Argyro Xenophontos