Nightshade Family

Nightshade Family - Solanaceae

Black Nightshade Solanum nigrum

Native throughout most of Europe and Asia, south into India and subsaharan Africa. Leaves very variable with a number of varieties described, based largely on the variability of leaf-edge lobing and hairiness. Fruits green at first but ripening black.


Habit	Flowers	Leaf	Fruit

Red Nightshade Solanum villosum

Native throughout Europe and the Mediterranean Region, eastwards across much of Central Asia to India and China and southwards into Tropical Africa. Fruits start green and ripen red.


Habit	Flowers	Leaves	Leaf

Fruits	Fruit

Bittersweet Solanum dulcamara

(Woody Nightshade) Native throughout Eurasia. Often in marginal wetland habitats but also as a weed of gardens and rough ground. Leaves variable, from simple to unevenly lobed at the base. Stems thin and tough, scrambling and sometimes twining through and over other vegetation. Note that many people erroneously know this plant as Deadly Nightshade, which is a much rarer species with very different flowers and black berries (see below).


Habit	Flowers	Leaves	Fruit

Silvery-leaved Nightshade Solanum elaeagnifolium

Native to the USA, Mexico and southern South America. Widely introduced into the Old World as a crop contaminant and occasionally found on cultivated or disturbed ground.


Flower	Flower	Leaf	Leaf

Fruits	Fruits

Common Thorn-apple Datura stramonium

(Jimson Weed) Introduced from Central America and now an almost cosmopolitan weed in enriched, cultivated soils. A bushy plant, sometimes to over a metre in height. Plants may be green-stemmed with white flowers (variety stramonium), or purple-stemmed with pale lilac flowers (variety chalybaea).


Habit	Flower	Leaf	Fruit

Flower	Flower	Fruit

Recurved Thorn-apple Datura innoxia

Introduced from Central America as an ornamental and now widespread around the world, especially in tropical and warm temperate regions. A bushy plant, sometimes to two metres in height and covered in dense, patent hairs.


Habit	Flower	Leaf

Young fruit	Mature fruit	Stem hairs

Common Henbane Hyoscyamus niger

Native throughout much of Eurasia. A plant covered in dense, clammy hairs and with highly distinctive flowers.


Habit	Habit	Flower	Flower

Leaf

White Henbane Hyoscyamus albus

Native from Macaronesia and the Mediterranean Region to the Arabian Peninsula.


Habit	Habit	Flowers	Flower

Flowers	Flowers	Flowers	Leaf

European Boxthorn Lycium europaeum

Native to the Mediterranean Region. A deciduous, spiny bush, sometimes to two metres in height.


Habit	Flower and fruit	Flower	Flower

Leaves	Stem

Tree Tobacco Nicotiana glauca

Native to South America but widely introduced and naturalised throughout much of the warm temperate and tropical parts of the world. Grown as a garden plant and sometimes occurring where self-seeded on cultivated ground and roadsides.


Habit	Habit	Habit	Flowers

Flower	Leaves	Leaf	Seed capsules

Flora of Lesvos An Identification Guide

Nightshade Family

Nightshade Family - Solanaceae

Species List

Flora of Lesvos
An Identification Guide