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

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

Withania Withania somnifera

Native from the Mediterranean Region southwards through Africa and eastwards through the Middle East and India to China.


Habit	Flowers	Flower	Flower

Leaves	Fruit

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

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.