Ma-sha-kvé in Kamsa or Koche, Sibundoy, Colombia 
(Schultes, 1949, 45). 
Naranjilla in Ecuador, southernmost Colombia. 
The few authors who have been concerned with this 
fruit agree that the word lu/o is of Keshwa origin. Some 
linguists attribute it to the Quitoan or northernmost 
form of ruru, meaning ‘‘egg,’” “‘fruit’’ (Lira, 1945, 557; 
‘Toscano Mateus, 1953, 93). The earliest known Keshwa- 
Spanish vocabulary states of /u//u: ‘‘unripe thing: soft 
bud of tree or anything similar’” (Domingo de Santo 
Tomas, 1560, 147). Another Keshwa vocabulary of the 
beginning of the 17th Century reports: ‘‘W/udlu-ruru, 
everything that is tender before becoming hard”; and 
‘Uullu-ruru=tender, milky fruit’? (Gonzalez Holguin, 
1608, 213; Gonzalez Holguin, 1952 (ed. fascim.) ). The 
first reported name which was applied to a solanaceous 
plant with a description corresponding reasonably to 
Solanum aff. quitoense Lam. is puscolulu, derived, as 
suspected by Jiménez de la Espada (see below), from 
ppocheco-ruru: ‘sour or acid fruit.’ Gonzalez Holguin, 
in fact, says: ‘‘pochcco=yeast or thing acid or sour” 
(Gonzalez Holguin, 1608, 295). Theoretically, it could 
also be accepted that puscolulo means ‘‘mucilaginous 
fruit,’’ from ‘‘pucoco=‘‘foam or slaver’’ (Domingo de 
Santo Tomis, 1560, 162 v.). 
While we admit that /uw/o is of Keshwa origin, it is not 
clear how the term pusco has disappeared from puscolulo, 
whereas the names of several other fruits have kept it: 
e.g., asna-lulo and chaqui-lulo, quoted by some colonial 
sources for fruits from the highlands of the Province of 
Pasto: and chonta-ruro, a name known since the end of 
the 16th Century (Patino, 1958, AI, NVIILI, 177-204; 
299-332). 
Since Solanum quitoense is indigenous to the equinoc- 
tial region, one may justifiably assume that the name 
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