SOLANACEAE NIGHTSHADE FAMILY 
BITTERSWEET NIGHTSHADE 
Solanum Dulcamara L. 
The Nightshade family is very large, most members in- 
habiting the tropics and the number native of our climate not 
great. Of extreme economic importance are the Potato, To- 
mato, Eggplant, To- 
bacco and Petunia. 
This pretty climb- 
ing plant is a native of 
Europe and Asia but it 
appears to like certain 
parts of America very 
well. It is quite com- ° 
mon in waste places 
and especially abun- Y. 
dant in swamps from 
Nova Scotia to Minne- 
sota and south to New 
Jersey and Kansas. It 
makes a fine ornamental vine as 
foliage, flowers and fruits are all 
handsome, but it has a tendency 
to spread and become a weed in cities. 
The plant is perennial and some- 
what woody near the base, but most 
of the stem is herbaceous and dies to the ground or nearly so 
each winter. Having no special means for climbing, it leans 
upon or straggles over whatever support is available. The 
stems are usually 2-8 feet long. Leaves are quite variable, some 
being entire, others having a lobe on 1 side near the base and 
others having 2 such lobes. 
Blue, purple or rarely white flowers are produced from May 
to September, and during the latter part of the season flowers 
and ripe fruits may be found on the same plant. The calyx, with 
s short lobes, is persistent at the base of the fruit. The corolla is 
deeply s-cleft and its narrow pointed lobes are somewhat reflexed. 
The 5 stamens, with short filaments and long anthers, are at- 
tached to the throat of the corolla, and the anthers cling together 
to form a cone. There is 1 pistil. The fruit is a bright red, oval, 
inedible berry which may be fatally poisonous to children. 
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