Flowers and fruits. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Booroowa-Crookwell Road, NSW

Flowers, fruits, and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Plant. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Common Name

Black-berry Nightshade, Black Nightshade

Family

Solanaceae

Notes

Introduced short lived shrub or annual or perennial forb to 1.25m tall.  Leaves alternating up the stems, the wing of the leaf stalk extending down the stem, 2-13cm long, 10-80mm wide, flat, more or less hairy and sticky.  Juvenile leaves with entire edges, later leaves lobed and toothed, sometimes with wavy edges, tip blunt or pointed, sometimes with a curved point.  Flowers white, rarely tinged purple, tubular, with five lobes, in racemes of 3-12 flowers on stalks arising from the bases of the leaves or along the stems.  Fruit purplish black to black.

Description and photo in GM Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 588

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Solanum~nigrum

Online fact sheet published by the South Australian Herbarium:   http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/efsa/lucid/Solanaceae/Solanum%20species/key/Australian%20Solanum%20species/Media/Html/Solanum_nigrum.htm

Weeds of Australia Biosecurity Queensland Edition description:  http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/03030800-0b07-490a-8d04-0605030c0f01/media/Html/Solanum_nigrum.htm