Solanum americanum – American Black Nightshade

Solanum americanum - American Black Nightshade, White Nightshade, Smallflower Nightshade

Solanum americanum - American Black Nightshade, White Nightshade, Smallflower Nightshade

Plant Name

Scientific Name: Solanum americanum

Synonyms: Solanum caribaeum, S. fistulosum, S. hermannii, S. linnaeanum, S. nigrum var. americanum, S. nigrum var. virginicum, S. nodiflorum, S. sodomeum

Common Names: American Black Nightshade, White Nightshade, Smallflower Nightshade

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Annual, Perennial

Growth Habit: Subshrub, Herb/Forb

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Desert, Upland, Riparian. This weedy plant grows in riparian areas, agricultural areas, and in disturbed areas with a little extra water like drainage ditches.

Flower Color: White to tinged purple

Flowering Season: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. It blooms sporadically throughout much of the year whenever conditions are right.

Height: To 30 inches (76 cm) tall

Description: The flowers are small and have 5 narrow, point-tipped, often reflexed lobes and a beak of yellow stamens. The flowers are followed by round, green berries that ripen to a shiny black. The leaves are green above and below, glabrous to fuzzy, oval in shape, petioled, and either smooth-edged or edged with large, rounded teeth.

The very similar West Indian nightshade (Solanum ptycanthum) is mostly hairless and can have leaves with purple undersides.

Special Characteristics

Poisonous – The plants, especially the leaves and green fruit, are poisonous and contain the glycoalkaloid solanine as well as the tropane alkaloids scopolamine (hyoscine) and hyoscyamine (an isomer of atropine).

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae – Potato family
Genus: Solanum L. – nightshade
Species: Solanum americanum Mill. – American black nightshade

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map