The eggplant, aubergine, or brinjal (Solanum melongena) is a solanaceous plant bearing a fruit of the same name, commonly used as a vegetable in cooking. It is closely related to the tomato and potato and is native to southern India and Sri Lanka. It is an annual plant growing 40 - 150 cm tall (16 in - 57 in), often spiny, with large coarsely lobed leaves 10-20 cm long and 5-10 cm broad. The flowers are white to purple, with a five-lobed corolla and yellow stamens. The fruit is a fleshy berry, less than 3 cm in diameter on wild plants, but much larger in cultivated forms. The fruit contains numerous small, soft seeds. (Semi-)wild types can grow much larger, to 225 cm (84 in.) with large leaves over 30 cm long and 15 cm broad.

The name eggplant in the United States, Australia, and Canada developed from the fact that the fruits of some 18th-century European cultivars were yellow or white and resembled goose or hen's eggs. Aubergine is the British name given to this fruit, from the French aubergine, derived from Catalan alberg

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