Common Name: NIGHTSHADE FAMILY
Habit: Annual to shrub. Leaf: generally simple, generally alternate, generally petioled; stipules 0; blade entire to deeply lobed. Inflorescence: various. Flower: bisexual; calyx lobes generally 5; corolla +- radial, cylindric to rotate, lobes generally 5; stamens 5, on corolla tube, alternate lobes; ovary superior, generally 2-chambered, style 1. Fruit: berry, loculicidal or septicidal capsule, [(drupe)], 2--5-chambered.
Genera In Family: 75 genera, 3000 species: worldwide, especially +- tropics; many alien weeds in California; many cultivated for food, drugs, or ornamental (potato, tomato, peppers, tobacco, petunia). Toxicity: many TOXIC. Note: Nicandra physalodes (L.) Gaertn. is a waif.
eFlora Treatment Author: Michael H. Nee
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: NIGHTSHADE
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.
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