Solanum 

Contents:

Phylogeny & links to associated information

Plant  information

Common name:         Nightshade

Conservation status: . . .

Etymology:   

• The generic name was first used by Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) for a plant also known as strychnos, most likely S. nigrum

• Its derivation is uncertain, possibly stemming from the Latin word sol, meaning "sun", referring to its status as a plant of the sun

Flowers:

Fruit:                            

Leaves:         

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• Solanum species show a wide range of growth habits, such as annuals and perennials, vines, subshrubs, shrubs, and small trees

Habitat:   

Distribution:                  

Additional notes:     

• Species:

  • Many formerly independent genera like Lycopersicon (the tomatoes) and Cyphomandra are now included in Solanum as subgenera or sections

  • Thus, the genus today contains roughly 1,500–2,000 species

• Species having the common name "nightshade"

  • The species most commonly called nightshade in North America and Britain is Solanum dulcamara, also called bittersweet or woody nightshade (so-called because it is a (scandent) shrub)

  • Its foliage and egg-shaped red berries are poisonous, the active principle being solanine, which can cause convulsions and death if taken in large doses

  • Black nightshades (many species in the Solanum nigrum complex, Solanum sect. Solanum) have varying levels of toxins and are considered too toxic to eat by many people in North America and Europe, but young stems and leaves or fully ripened fruit of various species are cooked and eaten by native people in North America, Africa, and Asia

  • Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) belongs, like Solanum, to subfamily Solanoideae of the nightshade family, but, unlike that genus, is a member of tribe Hyoscyameae (Solanum belongs to tribe Solaneae)

  • The chemistry of Atropa species is very different from that of Solanum species and features the very toxic tropane alkaloids, the best-known of which is atropine

• Taxonomy

  • See also: List of Solanum species

  • The genus was established by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.[6] Its subdivision has always been problematic, but slowly some sort of consensus is being achieved

  • The following list is a provisional lineup of the genus' traditional subdivisions, together with some notable species.[6] Many of the subgenera and sections might not be valid; they are used here provisionally as the phylogeny of this genus is not fully resolved yet and many species have not been reevaluated

  • Cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data suggest that the present subdivisions and rankings are largely invalid

  • Far more subgenera would seem to warrant recognition, with Leptostemonum being the only one that can at present be clearly subdivided into sections

    • Notably, it includes as a major lineage several members of the traditional sections Cyphomandropsis and the old genus Cyphomandra