SOLANACEAE 



NIGHTSHADE FAMILY 



HORSE NETTLE 



Solarium carolincnse 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 is 

 covered with fine 

 branched hairs and is 

 also armed with stout 

 yellowish prickles. 



The violet or rarely 

 white flowers are pro- 

 duced from May to 

 September. The calyx 

 is 5-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, Solarium elaeagnijolium 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 

 5-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, Solarium 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 I 

 inch broad. The fruit is closely covered by the very prickly calyx, 

 and including the prickles is i inch or more in diameter. 



295 



