Suffruticose annual up to 90 cm tall. Stem and branches stellately hairy and with few prickles. Leaves 5-20 x 4-15 cm, ovate to rhomboid-ovate, sinuate to lobed. Flowers solitary or up to 5 in number, purple to pale violet; pedicel recurved, up to 5 cm in fruit. Calyx campanulate, 15-18 mm long, sparsely prickled, enlarging in fruit. Corolla limb 3-5 cm broad; lobes triangular-ovate, stellate-tomentose to the outside. Anthers 5-6 mm long. Filaments 3-4 mm long. Berry variously shaped from ovoid to subglobose or elongated, 8-15 cm long, usually dark purple or various shades of it. Seeds subreniform, c. 3 mm long, minutely rugose.

Fl. Per.: July-September.

Lectotype: Described from Asia, Africa and America. Hb. Linn 248/28 (LINN).

Distribution: Native to India.

The ‘Brinjal or egg plant’ is commonly cultivated throughout the country. Sometimes found as an escape, where it becomes quite prickly and with smaller berries. The leaves have narcotic properties and the seed is used as a stimulant (Chopra, Gloss. Ind. Med. Pl. 229. 1956).