by Joyce Van Eck and Evelyn Bae

The Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research

The Solanaceae Family

Do you look exactly like your sister or brother? Do you look more like your aunt or cousin? These are all members of your family, so you may look like some of them. Even if you don’t look identical to your relatives, you may share some characteristics, such as the color of your eyes or the shape of your mouth. Maybe you don’t look at all like your relatives! Today we talked about one plant family, the Solanaceae (pronounced sol-uh-NAY-cee-ee). There are many, many members of this family and while they are all related, they look quite different from one another. Some plants you are familiar with are potato, tomato, eggplant, and peppers; you eat these! There are also some beautiful ornamental plants, such as petunia, in the family. Would you have ever guessed they were all related? While learning about this special and diverse family of plants, we created our own “Sol” family, by decorating the fruits with facial features. We all know about Mr. Potatohead but have you ever heard of Mr. Eggplanthead or Mr. Pepperhead!? Did you know? Some members of the Solanaceae family are dangerous to eat, particularly for pets. Some people know the Solanaceae better by its common name, the Nightshade family.

Find a Word Challenge

Using the letters in the word Solanaceae in different combinations, find

as many words with two or more letters that you can make. Here’s one

to get you started - clone (Solanaceae).

The Solanaceae Family

E L V V U P S F O Y E L E I X

W A F E O S L Z T J G J C E A

D O E T G O E I X Y G N U N S

W E A C W E S I L U P L A E C

J T T E A R T I R C L T S G W

O H R A E N M A Y F A N O P Z

E S H V L A A M B F N E C L L

Y J I C F E G L I L T R C A B

S D L R J Y R M O M E E A N L

A I N U T E P Q A S Q F B T B

T O M A T I L L O W P F O S D

D N U O R G R E D N U I T W U

A R I P E P P E R J I D S P Q

P V Q Y O T A M O T V A R T S

V D I J X G E N Q N C R N B D

DIFFERENT DIVERSITY EGGPLANT

FAMILY FLOWERS FRIES

PEPPER PETUNIA PLANTS

POTATO RELATED SAUCE

SOLANACEAE TOBACCO TOMATILLO

TOMATO UNDERGROUND VEGETABLE

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Word Search Puzzle http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/code/BuildWordSe...

1 of 2 4/23/09 3:07 PM

TOMATO

http://www.ausmalbilder-kostenlos.de/Ausmalbilder%20Obsat%20Gemuese.html

TOMATO

POTATO

http://www.ausmalbilder-kostenlos.de/Ausmalbilder%20Obsat%20Gemuese.html

POTATO

http://web.aces.uiuc.ed/wellnessways/

EGGPLANT

http://web.aces.uiuc.ed/wellnessways/

PEPPER

http://web.aces.uiuc.ed/wellnessways/

PETUNIA

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/FX101321031033.aspx