Green Nightshade
Scientific name: Solanum physalifolium Rusby
Diagnostic features
Annual with decumbent stems to 1(2)m, to 40cm tall, with many patent glandular hairs.
Leaves as in Solanum nigrum.
Flowers (3)4-8(10).
Calyx-lobes up to 2mm in flower, less than 4mm in fruit, usually shorter than berry.
Corolla white, with lobes 2-4mm wide.
Fruit as in Solanum nigrum but green to purplish-brown, partly concealed by sepals, with less than 30 seeds.
Chromosome number: 2n=16.
Habitat
Introduced-naturalized.
Distribution
In cultivated and waste ground in Central & South England and Channel Islands, casual from wool and other sources elsewhere in Britain; South America.
This species is keyed out on Page 3472 in the Text Key.
Note
Our plant is Solanum physalifolium Rusby var. nitidibaccatum (Bitter) Edmonds.
Hybrids
- Solanum x procurrens A.C. Leslie (= Solanum nigrum x Solanum physalifolium) occurs with the parents in cultivated ground in West Kent, West Suffolk, Cambs and Beds; it is intermediate in calyx characters and has black berries with 0-few seeds. Chromosome number: 2n=48; endemic. |
