apple of Sodom

Meanings

1. A gigantic tree supposed to have grown on the site of the destroyed cities Sodom and Gomorrah (see Genesis 18–19 in the Bible), the apples of which would turn to ash and smoke once picked.
2. The fruit of the mythical tree.
3. Any of various plants, often bearing bitter or poisonous fruit.
4. A mudar (Calotropis procera), a flowering plant, found from northern Africa to southeast Asia, which bears poisonous fruit.
5. A bitter apple, colocynth, etc. (Citrullus colocynthis), a desert plant native to Asia and the Mediterranean Basin with extremely bitter flesh.
6. Any of certain species of plants of the genus Solanum (nightshades).
7. A forest bitterberry (Solanum anguivi), a plant native to non-arid parts of Africa.
8. A Carolina horsenettle (Solanum carolinense), a plant native to North America.
9. A bitter apple, bitterball, or bitter tomato (Solanum incanum), a plant native to sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and India.
10. A black spine nightshade or devil's apple (Solanum linnaeanum), a plant native to southern Africa that bears poisonous berries.
11. A nipplefruit (Solanum mammosum), a plant native to South America.

Etymology

apple + of + Sodom; compare the common assumption that the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden was an apple. Possibly also imitative of Hebrew תַּפּוּחַ (tapuah, “apple”) + סְדוֹם (Sdom, “Sodom”).