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Bluewitch nightshade

Solanum umbelliferum

Bluewitch nightshade
Photo: Miguel Vieira, CC BY 2.0
Family
Solanaceae (Nightshade family)
Grows as
Shrub, Perennial
Safety
Toxic to cats and dogs (ASPCA).
Native range
S. Oregon to NW. Mexico
Climate
temperate

About

Solanum umbelliferum is a species of nightshade known commonly as bluewitch nightshade, or bluewitch. It can be found in chaparral habitat and low-elevation oak woodlands in California and parts of Baja California and Arizona. It is a small perennial herb or subshrub with dark gray-green oval-shaped leaves on hairy green stems that grow to a maximum height of one meter. It has bright purple or blue frilly flowers with thick yellow anthers at the center. The flowers close into spherical buds overnight. It bears small round green fruits which turn purple when ripe and resemble tiny eggplants.

It is a tough shrub which can grow in rocky and clay soils and springs up in areas recovering from wildfires or other disturbances. Like most other members of genus Solanum, S. umbelliferum contains toxic alkaloids.

Other Solanum plants

Nightshade · Dwarf Tamarillo · Solanum acaule · Solanum acerifolium · Sodaapple nightshade · Dutch Eggplant · Solanum adenophorum · Solanum adoxum · Sonoita nightshade · Ethiopian nightshade · Solanum africanum · Solanum agnewiorum

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Solanum umbelliferum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

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.

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