Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual, erect or ascendingly branched herbs 20-60 cm tall, branching sympodially, each leaf appearing to have a branch and flower axillary to it, with narrow band of simple, short curved hairs extending from node to node along underside of each petiole, otherwise plants glabrous.

Leaves: On slender petioles 1-3 cm long, blades elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 8-25 mm wide, 2-5 cm long, broadly cuneate at base, acute at apex, margin entire to sometimes sinuate.

Flowers: Pedicels 2-4 mm long, slender, coarsely puberulent with white hairs; calyx 2-3 mm long, tubular-subcampanulate at anthesis, puberulent, broadly deltoid teeth 0.4-0.6 mm long, erect; corolla tube longer than calyx, inflated upper part 2-3 mm in diameter, purplish at anthesis, bearing a few scattered minute hairs; fruiting calyx globose-ovoid, 10-12 mm long, finely reticulate-veined, greenish.

Fruits: Berry 5-6 mm in diameter, glabrous.

Ecology: Found on shaded slopes or in streamside alluvial soils from 3,500-5,500 ft (1067-1676 m); flowers August-November.

Notes: The flowers on this species are distinctive with their inflated upper portions constricting to a campanulate purplish flower.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Margaranthus comes from Greek margarites, or margaron, a pearl and anthos, flower, while solanaceus means of or from the Solanaceae.

Synonyms: Margaranthus lemmonii, M. purpurascens

Editor: SBuckley, 2010