Italian Cooks Up Eggplant and Tomato Tree

A Sicilian amateur botanist claims to have developed a plant hybrid that functions as the world’s first tomato/eggplant tree, ANSA reports. Taking advantage of the fact that all three share the same genus, Giuseppe Marino grafted tomato and eggplant tissue onto a devil’s fig shrub, a hardy plant that can survive with very little water.

The eggplant and tomato tree, able to be cultivated nearly anywhere, could be ''an answer … to the problem of world hunger," said Marino, adding, "The fruits are very big, with perfect taste, color and smell, and of a better quality than those grown in the normal way.” (More tomatoes stories.)