Potato tree, salvadora

Shrubs or small trees, erect, unarmed, 2–8 m, densely pubes­cent, hairs sessile to short-stalked, stellate to echinoid. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1–10 cm; blade simple, elliptic to ovate, 10–25 × 3–15 cm, mar­gins entire, base rounded or acute. Inflorescences terminal, becoming leaf-opposed, much-branched, 10–50-flowered, 5–20 cm. Pedicels 0.2–0.6 cm in flower, erect and 0.4–10 cm in fruit. Flowers radially sym­metric; calyx accrescent and subtending fruit, unarmed, 5–7 mm, densely pubescent, hairs stellate to echinoid, lobes broadly triangular; corolla white, stellate, 1–2 cm diam., without interpetalar tissue; stamens equal; anthers oblong, 2.5–3.5 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores that open into longitudinal slits; ovary tomentose, hairs stellate or echinoid. Berries yellow to orange, globose, 1–2 cm diam., densely pubescent, without sclerotic granules. Seeds yellowish brown, flattened, 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 mm, minutely pitted. 2n = 24.

Flowering Apr–Oct (year-round in Fla.). Hammocks, pinelands, disturbed sites; 0–100 m; Fla., Tex.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America (Colombia); introduced in Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands (including the Galapagos Islands), Australia.

In the United States, Solanum erianthum is common only in central to southern Florida and in extreme southern Texas near the Gulf of Mexico.

The name Solanum verbascifolium Linnaeus has been widely misapplied to S. erianthum (K. E. Roe 1968), but is a synonym of S. donianum that has now been rejected.