Habit: Annual to shrub, vine or not, prickly or not, often glandular. Leaf: alternate to +- opposite, often unequal, entire to deeply pinnately lobed. Inflorescence: panicle or umbel-like, often 1-sided. Flower: calyx +- bell-shaped; corolla +- rotate, white to purple (yellow), lobes generally of different color toward base of midrib, generally without spots at base; anthers free, > filaments, oblong or tapered, opening by 2 pores or short slits near tip, in age often splitting to base; ovary 2-chambered, style 1, generally +- straight, stigma head-like. Fruit: berry, generally spheric, fleshy (or dry, capsule-like). Seed: many, compressed, generally reniform.
Species In Genus: +- 1500 species: worldwide, especially tropical America. Etymology: (Latin: quieting, from narcotic properties) Toxicity: many TOXIC. Note: Many cultivated for food (including potato, Solanum tuberosum), ornamental; Solanum dimidiatum in California an urban weed. See Lycopersicon for other taxa recently included here.
Jepson eFlora Author: Michael H. Nee
Unabridged Reference: Nee, M. 1999. Synopsis of Solanum in the New World, pp. 285--333 in M. Nee, D.E. Symon, R.N. Lester & J.P. Jessop (eds.), Solanaceae IV, Advances in Biology and Utilization, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Symon 1981 J Adelaide Bot Gard 4:1--367
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Key to Solanum

List of species Solanum americanum Solanum aviculare Solanum carolinense Solanum dimidiatum Solanum douglasii Solanum dulcamara Solanum elaeagnifolium Solanum furcatum Solanum lanceolatum Solanum marginatum Solanum nigrum Solanum parishii Solanum physalifolium var. nitidibaccatum Solanum rostratum Solanum sisymbriifolium Solanum triflorum Solanum umbelliferum Solanum wallacei Solanum xanti

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