Duration: Annual

Nativity: Non-Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Herbaceous to suffrutescent annuals or perennials, 60-200 cm tall, stems sharply angled to narrowly winged, much-branched, herbage sparsely to densely covered with ash colored, hairs densely appressed or sub-appressed, plants unarmed, not tuberlike or stoloniferous.

Leaves: Alternate, ovate to lanceolate, 1-9 cm long, bases cuneate to subtruncate, margins coarsely sinuate-dentate to nearly entire, petioles 10-25 mm long.

Flowers: White with green spots at the center, lavender, or lavender-tinged, corollas rotate, 7-20 mm in diameter, 5-cleft, the lobes with deep divisions and more or less pointed tips, calyx rotate to campanulate, 2-3 mm long, 5-toothed, stamens 5, inserted on the corolla tube, filaments short, anthers yellow, oblong, erect, 3-4 mm long, converging but not united around the style (connivent), filaments very short, style 4-5 mm, puberulent below, flowers several in umbelliform cymes, peduncles 1-3 cm long, pedicels slender, 5-12 mm long.

Fruits: Berries whitish to greenish, maturing black, 6-9 mm in diameter, smooth, glabrous, not or only loosely invested by the calyx, persistent. Seeds pale yellow, 1-1.5 mm, many.

Ecology: Found on rocky slopes and in canyons, in chaparral, from 1,500-6,000 ft (457-1829 m); flowering March-October.

Distribution: New Mexcio, Arizona, California, Oregon; Mexico.

Notes: Look for this species under S. douglasii in older texts. USDA Plants is out of date for this species, and does not contain the current synonyms or location data, see TROPICOS for more details.

Synonyms: Many, see Tropicos

Editor: LCrumbacher 2012

Etymology: Solanum is Latin for "quieting," in reference to the narcotic properties of some species, while the meaning of nigrescens is unknown.