SOLANACEAE NIGHTSHADE FAMILY 
HORSE NETTLE 
Solanum carolinense L. 
The Horse Nettle is found in fields and waste places from Ver- 
mont and southern Ontario to Florida, west to Illinois, Nebraska 
and Texas. It is perennial by underground stems and where well 
established as a weed 
is sometimes quite 
difficult to eradicate. 
Usually this plant 
is considerably 
branched and grows 
1-4 feet high. It 1s 
covered with fine 
branched hairs and is 
also armed with stout 
yellowish prickles. 
The violet orrarely 
white flowers are pro- 
duced from May to 
September. The calyx 
is $-lobed and about 
half as long as the 
corolla, which is wheel 
shaped with the 5 
stamens inserted on 
its throat. The an- 
thers form a sort of 
cone around the style and open by pores at the upper end. The 
fruits are inedible orange-yellow berries. 
The Silver-leaved Nightshade, Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav., 
sometimes called White Horse Nettle, is a hoary perennial whose 
dense scurflike covering is caused by its many-rayed hairs. The 1-3- 
foot stems are much branched, have occasional slender prickles and 
bear lanceolate to linear, petioled leaves 1-4 inches long. The small 
s-parted blue or violet flowers are in cymes which at first appear 
terminal but at length lateral. The plant is found only along railways 
extending into the southwest. 
The Buffalo Bur, Solanum rostratum Dunal, is occasionally found 
as a weed in Illinois. It is a much branched, prickly annual 1-2 feet 
high, which appears whitish or yellowish from the abundant branched 
hairs that cover stems and leaves. The leaves are deeply lobed and 
sometimes almost Compound. The flowers are yellow and about 1 
inch broad. The fruit is closely covered by the very prickly calyx, 
and including the prickles is 1 inch or more in diameter. 
295 
