Editing Eggplant (section)

==Taxonomy==
[[File:Segmented aubergine Thailand.jpg|thumb|Segmented purple eggplant]]

The eggplant is quite often featured in the older scientific literature under the [[junior synonym]]s ''S. ovigerum'' and ''S. trongum''. Several other names that are now invalid have been uniquely applied to it:<ref name="ss2008">[https://solanaceaesource.myspecies.info/solanaceae/solanum-melongena-0 ''Solanum melongena'' L. on Solanaceae Source] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080310174529/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/solanaceaesource/taxonomy/description-detail.jsp?spnumber=3819 |date=10 March 2008 }}: Images, specimens and a full list of scientific synonyms previously used to refer to the eggplant.</ref>
* ''Melongena ovata'' {{small|Mill.}}
* ''Solanum album'' {{small|Noronha}}
* ''Solanum insanum'' {{small|L.}}
* ''Solanum longum'' {{small|Roxb.}}
* ''Solanum melanocarpum'' {{small|Dunal}}
* ''Solanum melongenum'' {{small|St.-Lag.}}
* ''Solanum oviferum'' {{small|Salisb.}}
* ''Prachi'' {{small|Salisb.}}

A number of [[subspecies]] and [[variety (botany)|varieties]] have been named, mainly by Dikii, Dunal, and (invalidly) by Sweet. Names for various eggplant types, such as {{lang|la|agreste, album, divaricatum, esculentum, giganteum, globosi, inerme, insanum, leucoum, luteum, multifidum, oblongo-cylindricum, ovigera, racemiflorum, racemosum, ruber, rumphii, sinuatorepandum, stenoleucum, subrepandum, tongdongense, variegatum, violaceum, viride}}, are not considered to refer to anything more than cultivar groups at best. However, ''[[Solanum incanum]]'' and [[cockroach berry]] (''S. capsicoides''), other eggplant-like nightshades described by [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]] and [[Carlo Allioni|Allioni]], respectively, were occasionally considered eggplant varieties, but this is not correct.<ref name = ss2008 />

The eggplant has a long history of [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomic]] confusion with the [[scarlet eggplant|scarlet]] and [[Ethiopian eggplant|Ethiopian]] eggplants (''[[Solanum aethiopicum]])'', known as ''gilo'' and ''nakati'', respectively, and described by Linnaeus as ''S. aethiopicum''. The eggplant was sometimes considered a variety ''violaceum'' of that species. ''S. violaceum'' of [[A. P. de Candolle|de Candolle]] applies to Linnaeus' ''S. aethiopicum''. An actual ''S. violaceum'', an unrelated plant described by Ortega, included Dunal's ''S. amblymerum'' and was often confused with the same author's ''S. brownii''.<ref name = ss2008 />

Like the potato and ''S. lichtensteinii'', but unlike the tomato, which then was generally put in a different genus, the eggplant was also described as ''[[Solanum esculentum|S. esculentum]]'', in this case once more in the course of [[Michel Félix Dunal|Dunal]]'s work. He also recognized the varieties ''aculeatum'', ''inerme'', and ''subinerme'' at that time. Similarly, [[Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher|H.C.F. Schuhmacher]] and [[Peter Thonning]] named the eggplant as ''[[Solanum edule|S. edule]]'', which is also a junior synonym of [[sticky nightshade]] (''S. sisymbriifolium''). [[Giovanni Antonio Scopoli|Scopoli]]'s ''S. zeylanicum'' refers to the eggplant, and that of Blanco to ''[[Solanum lasiocarpum|S. lasiocarpum]]''.<ref name = ss2008 />