Woody or climbing or bitter nightshade, bittersweet, morelle douce-amère

Solanum dulcamara var. villosissimum Desvaux

Vines, climbing or scrambling, herbaceous or woody, unarmed, to 8–10 m, sparsely to densely pubescent, hairs unbranched and/or dendritic, rarely gla­brous. Leaves 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. Inflorescences terminal or lateral, extra-axillary, much-branched, 7–40-flowered, (1–)4–15 cm. Pedicels inserted into a small sleeve on the inflorescence axis, 0.6–1.2 cm in flower and fruit. Flowers 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. Berries bright shiny red, globose to ellipsoidal, 0.5–1.5 × 0.5–1 cm, glabrous, without sclerotic granules. Seeds pale yellow or tan, flattened, 2–3 mm diam., minutely pitted. 2n = 24.

Flowering May–Nov. Weedy, in a wide variety of habitats, often associated with water; 0–2000 m; B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Ala., Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., D.C., Fla., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Tenn., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Eurasia.

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).