Great blog entry on the history and geography of nightshades

Great blog entry on the history and geography of nightshades
https://botanistinthekitchen.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/making-ratatouille-like-a-botanist/#more-1154

Nightshades all come from the New World i.e. the Americas originally and include many common plants: potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, eggplant, tobacco, etc. Most nightshades made it to Europe only after the era of exploration and the Columbian Exchange began.

However, the article makes an interesting note about halfway down under "Old World nightshades" answering the question how did a few nightshades make it to the Old World (Europe/Asia/Africa) before the era of Transatlantic exploration? The article suggests that is was birds which carried them over oceans to new continents:

"Long before European ships began transporting charismatic Solanaceae [nightshade] species home from the Americas, a few American nightshades made the transoceanic voyage on their own, probably assisted by birds.  Something like 15 to 17 successful dispersal events are necessary to account for the present-day distribution of Solanaceae native to Pacific Islands, Africa, Australia, and Eurasia (Olmstead 2013).  Some modern descendants of three of these dispersal events are shown on the phylogeny in red: Chinese goji berries (Lycium barbarum and L. chinense); European deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna); and, of course, the eggplants."