Cocona Solanum sessiliflorum Dunal. This binomial was dropped in favor of S. topiro HBK., which is now replaced by S. sessiliflorum Dunal. The Indians of the Upper Orinoco call it tupiro or topiro. Some Colombians refer to it as coconilla, or as lulo , a name more often given to the naranjilla.
New shoots are rusty-hairy on the underside.
The wild variety georgicum has spines on stem, branches and leaves. The flesh has a mild flavor faintly suggestive of tomato, while the pulp has a pleasant, lime-like acidity. The spineless cocona is apparently unknown in the wild, having been observed by botanists only in cultivation from Peru and Colombia to Venezuela and bordering regions of Brazil. In 1760, a Spanish surveyor, Apolinar Diez de la Fuente, found the cocona with maize and beans in an Indian garden between Guaharibos Falls and the juncture of the Casiquiare and Orinoco rivers. In 1800, Humboldt and Bonpland, traveling up the Orinoco, observed that the cocona was one of the common plants in the region between the Javita and Pimichin rivers, and they collected specimens on which the first technical description was based.