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Solanum americanum
Also called Glossy nightshade, Small Flowered Nightshade, Black Nightshade, American Nightshade, Wild Pepper, Small Flower Nightshade, Smallflower Nightshade
American black nightshade is a weedy herbaceous plant, usually grown as an annual, found across tropical and subtropical regions and widely naturalised elsewhere. It is a weed or wild plant rather than a commonly grown garden or houseplant, so care notes apply to its wild growth habit.
Solanum americanum, commonly known as American black nightshade, small-flowered nightshade or glossy nightshade, is a herbaceous flowering plant.
Research indicates the presence of toxic glycoalkaloids, with authorities warning to be careful regarding the use of S. americanum as herbal medicine or food. The green fruit is particularly poisonous and eating unripe berries has caused the death of children. Ripe berries and foliage may also cause poisoning, though the toxicity seems to diminish somewhat with ripening. This is due to high levels of the glycoalkaloids, solanine and solamargine. Other toxins present in the plant include chaconine, solasonine, solanigrine, gitogenin and traces of saponins, as well as the tropane alkaloids scopolamine and hyoscyamine (an isomer of atropine).
Significant amounts of solasodine (0.65%) have been found in the green berries. The ripe fruit also contains 0.3–0.45% solasonine, and acetylcholine, and has a cholinesterase-inhibiting effect on human plasma. In Transkei, rural people have a high incidence of esophageal cancer thought to be a result of using S. americanum as a food. Livestock can also be poisoned by high nitrate levels in the leaves.
It has a wide but uncertain native range. The certain native range encompasses the tropics and subtropics of the Americas, Melanesia, New Guinea, and Australia. The plant is widely naturalised around the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, including Hawaiʻi, Indochina, Madagascar and Africa, possibly via anthropogenic introduction in these locales.
Dwarf Tamarillo · Solanum acaule · Sodaapple nightshade · Ethiopian nightshade · Solanum arcanum · New Zealand nightshade · Solanum berthaultii · Tamarillo · Solanum brevicaule · Solanum cajanumense · Bitter Apple · Fuzzyfruit nightshade
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Solanum americanum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
