Eastern Black Nightshade

Solanum ptycanthum Dunal

Solanaceae (Nightshade Family)

▲▼ seedlings

 

▲ ▼ young plants

▲ ▼ flowering plants

▲ immature fruit

▲ mature fruit

▲ ▼ mature plants

Eastern Black Nightshade: 

o        much branched, summer annual weed, 1-3' tall

o        produces small white flowers and small oval purplish fruit

o        grows in cultivated fields, gardens, waste areas

o        unripe berries may be poisonous

o        can produce up to 178,000 seeds per plant

o        plants generally not spiny

o        black nightshade similar, but has larger fruit (up to ½” diameter), and usually leaf undersides are green, not purplish as on eastern black nightshade

o        hairy nightshade similar to eastern black nightshade, but leaves very hairy, berries stay green