SOLANACEAE 



NIGHTSHADE FAMILY 



BITTERSWEET NIGHTSHADE 



Solaniim 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- 

 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 i 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 

 5 short lobes, is persistent at the base of the fruit. The corolla is 

 deeply 5-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 i pistil. The fruit is a bright red, oval, 

 inedible berry which may be fatally poisonous to children. 



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