Snowy White eggplant in the ground with thorns!

This morning I put a row of snowy white eggplant into the ground out in the garden.



They are by far the largest and leafiest of the three eggplant varieties I´m growing.  I´d spent the past few days hardening them to the direct sun, wind and chillier nights outdoors, and they seemed to be adapting fine.  I was somewhat startled when I took them out of the greenhouse to notice that they have pretty well-developed thorns both on the stems: 

and down the veins of the leaves:

I've since noticed that all three of the eggplant varieties I'm growing have these thorns. I had no idea that eggplant could be so aggressive.