Subject: tropical soda apple

From: [email-masked]
Date: 4 Apr 1995 20:41:26 GMT

I have recently heard of a new weed which is apparently ravaging Florida and
spreading through Alabama and Mississippi.  It is called "tropical Soda
Apple".  I am told that it is a thorny, woody, weed that is as said to
be "the next Kudzu".

Where can I get more information?  Pictures?  Suggested web sites?

Many thanks,

Wesley J. Miller

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From: [email-masked] (mel turner)
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 1995 02:22:27

>Where can I get more information?  Pictures?  Suggested web sites?

Just a guess, but I vaguely  seem to recall  a  "Sodom Apple", a  
(sub)tropical, spiny species of _Solanum_  (_S. sodomaeum_?)
well, maybe it's a start.    mdt

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From: [email-masked] (mel turner)
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 1995 04:16:14

>(sub)tropical, spiny species of _Solanum_  (_S. sodomaeum_?)

I was close, but not quite right.       I'm just back from the library, where 
I find that "tropical soda apple" is  _Solanum viarum_, an introduced weed in 
Florida.  

Articles:  (sorry, I   didnt write down all the particulars)
Weed Technology 8(3) 465-469 (1994);  Weed Technol. 7: 732- 727;   Weed 
Technol. 7: 783-786  (1993)

Sida Contributions to Botany  15: 605=611  (1993).

enjoy.   mdt

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From: [email-masked] (Dave L Robinson)
Date: 8 Apr 1995 09:13:35 -0700

Wesley:

Try back issues of the two journals published by the Weed Science Society of 
America: *Weed Science* and *Weed Technology*. There have been several 
descriptive research articles on this species in the last year, or so, 
and as I recall a good cover-photo of it.

Dave Robinson
University of Minnesota
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From: [email-masked] (Mike)
Date: 14 Apr 1995 02:11:46 GMT

>Where can I get more information?  Pictures?  Suggested web sites?

Wesley, 

	I tried earlier to reply to your inquiry earlier but I think the message was lost.
The foremost authority on Tropical Soda Apple is Randy Westbrooks, he has all the latest USDA information 
on TSA. 
	Generally, TSA has also been discovered in Alabama(6 sites in 6 counties) and Toombs county Georgia.
In these particular cases, TSA was found growing in bags of "Black COW" cow manure. The USDA will be releasing the latest information on TSA 
in May 1995.
	If you have any other questions contact Dr. Westbrooks at the following address.

	Randy G. Westbrooks 
	USDA / APHIS
	Whiteville Plant Methods Center
	Whiteville, NC 
	(910)-648-4115
	Call Center to recieve his e-mail address