black nightshade
Family
SolanaceaeScientific Name
Solanum nigrumLeaves
Leaves: Alternate, petioled, egg-shaped in outline, margins variable either without teeth or shallowly round-toothed. Leaf pubescence is highly variable.
Stems: Slender and becoming woody with age, may be round, ridged, ridged with small teeth, with or without hairs.
Identifying Characteristics
An annual or short-lived perennial ranging from 1 1/2 to 3 1/3 feet in height. Nightshade with berries that do not contain sclerotic granules, as those in Eastern Black Nightshade (Solanum ptycanthum) do. This species is not found in the eastern United States.
Flower Seed Head
Flowers: Star-shaped, in umbel-like clusters, 4-9 per cluster, white.
Seed Fruit
Seedling: Cotyledons are covered with short hairs along the margins, midribs evident on lower surface, and petioles are also covered with hairs. Stems below the cotyledons (hypocotyls) are hairy and green in color.
Roots: Fibrous with shallow taproot.
Fruit: A berry, round, 5-10 mm in diameter, green early, turning black or dark green at maturity. Berries do not contain sclerotic granules.
Where Found
Black nightshade is primarily a weed of agronomic crops, forages, and gardens that is found along the West Coast of the United States only.
Growth Habit
vine
Thorns or Spines
present
Dominant Flower Color
Varies:
white,
blue
Leaf Hairs
has hairs
Leaf Shape
Varies:
oval,
triangle
Leaf Margin
entire
Leaf Structure
pinnate
Stem Hairs
Varies:
has hairs,
no hairs
Stem Cross Section
round or oval
Milky Sap
not present
Life Cycle
perennial
Ochrea
not present
Plant Type
Herb