Weedbender, that's a hoot! I will post more pictures if there isn't any relevant suggestions by tomorrow.
My first thought was that heavily armed nightshade (Solanum) that has been in garden centers in recent years, sounds like you are hinting as much - although it could just as well be something else, maybe a borage of some sort.
I was thinking of that Solanum too but it's not really annual, just not cold hardy here. Is that what you mean by annual?
May be I am making things a bit too hard here. Wouldn't like to see you think so hard that your faces turn "purple"! So, this might help.
Well, I don't know what it is, but I'm fairly certain the picture has been rotated clockwise by 90 degrees.
Growest knows! Congratulations! Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty' it is. It is a variety of millet, hence the reference to food. To be honest, I thought I had been a bit tough with the skimpy cropped down pictorial clues. This one got up to 6 feet tall (okay, 6 feet minus the 12 inches of container), and magestic it was with full foliage. With that height and the drammatic burgundy foliage colour, it was a real standout. But as you can see, even at the end of it's life cycle, it is still eye catching and a bit of a conversation opener. And the birds are sure thankful for the bonus harvest. Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty'
That was a good one. One of my first thoughts was a Red Fountain Grass but I realized it wasn't that. I guess I should have stayed on the grass track.
I thought it was supposed to be the stem of the plant, not the inflorescence. Now I see why the puffy balls below the bristles looked familiar, I have squinted at the inlflor
Hit the 'submit' button by mistake, can't get 'edit' to work on this computer. Anyway I've looked at the millet up close many times, amazed at how homely this cultivar is. The seeds popping out beneath the hairs are vaguely repulsive.
