Just discovered solanum americanum - wonder berry

I've just discovered this wonderful little berry.  I've never encountered this plant before.  It planted itself in my garden and I let it grow, waiting to see what it was.  I get such a kick out of discovering plants for food that are not cultivated.  And the happy little berries are delicious, tasting like a cross between a tomato and a cherry.  Now I need to learn how to propagate it

I find it fascinating that toxic plants also get used as food.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum_americanum

Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) is one of our most common introduced "weeds" here. Evidently there's a complex of closely related species with edible ripe berries and leaves, many of which are cultivated. I took a group of cub scouts on a foraging walk last week and introduced them to the fruit and got responses from "meh" to "those are yum."

They can be confused with deadly nightshade, so be careful, and apparently even the safe species are capable of producing toxic alkaloids under certain conditions, probably related to soil types and stress. The Wikipedia entries go into more detail about this, so all I would advise is to limit how many you eat unless you know more about the strain you're picking.

Phil Stevens wrote:Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) is one of our most common introduced "weeds" here. Evidently there's a complex of closely related species with edible ripe berries and leaves, many of which are cultivated. I took a group of cub scouts on a foraging walk last week and introduced them to the fruit and got responses from "meh" to "those are yum."

They can be confused with deadly nightshade, so be careful, and apparently even the safe species are capable of producing toxic alkaloids under certain conditions, probably related to soil types and stress. The Wikipedia entries go into more detail about this, so all I would advise is to limit how many you eat unless you know more about the strain you're picking.

I did research it before tasting it but what you say about strains and soil makes good sense.  Thank you.