Internet Colors - Set of 1035

Eggplant Color 323 - #614051

The nightshade known in North America as the eggplant, Solanum melongena, is a species of flowering plant known in French and British English as the aubergine. Also known as the brinjal, brinjal eggplant, melongene, or guinea squash, it is a member of the family Solanaceae. It bears a fruit of the same name, eggplant or aubergine, widely used in cooking, most notably moussaka and ratatouille. As a member of the genus Solanum, it is related to both the tomato and the potato. It was domesticated in India from the wild nightshade, the thorn or bitter apple, S. incanum.

Some 18th-century European cultivars were yellow or white and resembled goose or hen's eggs, hence the name "eggplant. The plant is native to the Indian Subcontinent. It has been cultivated in southern and eastern Asia since prehistory.[citation needed] The first known written record of the plant is found in Qi mín yao shu, an ancient Chinese agricultural treatise completed in 544.