Solanum dulcamara
Solanum emulans
bitter nightshade, bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, blue bindweed, climbing nightshade, European bittersweet, felonwort
eastern black nightshade, eastern nightshade
petiolate;
petiole 0.5–5 cm;
blade simple, elliptic or ovate to cordate, 2.5–12 × 1.2–9 cm, margins entire to deeply pinnatifid and usually 3-lobed near base, lobe margins entire, base truncate to cordate.
petiolate;
petiole 1–5 cm;
blade simple, ovate to elliptic, 4.5–10.5 × 2–6 cm, margins entire to sinuate-dentate, base attenuate to rounded.
terminal or lateral, extra-axillary, much-branched, 7–40-flowered, (1–)4–15 cm.
extra-axillary, unbranched, umbel-like, (2–)3–6-flowered, 1–2.5 cm.
inserted into a small sleeve on the inflorescence axis, 0.6–1.2 cm in flower and fruit.
straight and spreading in flower and recurved to reflexed in fruit, 0.5–1 cm.
radially symmetric;
calyx not accrescent, unarmed, 1–2 mm, glabrous to densely pubescent, lobes triangular, shallow;
corolla purple (rarely white), with green and white shiny spots at base of each lobe, deeply stellate, 1.5–2 cm diam., without interpetalar tissue;
stamens equal;
anthers oblong, slightly tapered, 4.5–6 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores that often open into longitudinal slits;
ovary glabrous.
radially symmetric;
calyx not accrescent, unarmed, 2–3 mm, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, lobes appressed in fruit, deltate;
corolla white, sometimes with yellow central star, rarely purplish, stellate, 0.5–1 cm diam., without interpetalar tissue;
stamens equal;
anthers ellipsoidal, 1–1.5 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores that open into longitudinal slits;
ovary glabrous.
bright shiny red, globose to ellipsoidal, 0.5–1.5 × 0.5–1 cm, glabrous, without sclerotic granules.
dull or slightly shiny purplish black, globose, 0.5–1 cm diam., glabrous, with 6–9 sclerotic granules per fruit.
pale yellow or tan, flattened, 2–3 mm diam., minutely pitted.
yellowish, flattened, 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 mm, finely reticulate.
, climbing or scrambling, herbaceous or woody, unarmed, to 8–10 m, sparsely to densely pubescent, hairs unbranched and/or dendritic, rarely glabrous.
= 24.
= 24.
Solanum dulcamara
Solanum emulans
Solanum dulcamara is widely distributed across Eurasia and boreal North America. The North American populations are thought to be introductions, but it is possible that the species has a truly circumboreal distribution. A white-flowered form has been recognized by some authors as S. dulcamara forma albiflorum House and an especially pubescent form as S. dulcamara var. villosissimum, but variation in a number of morphological features is continuous across the range of the species and these and other variants are not recognized in the latest monograph of the group (S. Knapp 2013).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Solanum emulans has often been called S. ptychanthum Dunal (with the variant spelling ptycanthum), but that name is a synonym of S. americanum.
Solanum emulans is the most common species in the black nightshade group in northeastern North America. It can be distinguished from other North American species in the black nightshade group by its unbranched inflorescences, short anthers, appressed fruiting calyx lobes, and numerous sclerotic granules in the fruits.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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