Eastern Black Nightshade

(Solanum ptycanthum Dunal)

Solanaceae (Nightshade Family)

▲ seedling

▲ ▼ young plants

▲ ▼ flowering plants

▲ immature fruit

▲ ▼ mature plants

Eastern Black Nightshade:  (pp. 536-527, Weeds of the Great Plains; pp. 318-319, 374 in Weeds of the Northeast)

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