New Zealand nightshade, poroporo

Shrubs, erect, unarmed, 1–4 m, glabrous. Leaves petiolate; pet­iole 1–1.5 cm; blade simple, elliptic, 10–30 × 2–15 cm, mar­gins entire or coarsely pinnatifid with 1–3 lobes per side, lobe margins entire, base cuneate. Inflorescences leaf-opposed or in branch fork, unbranched or forked, to 10-flowered, to 15 cm. Pedicels 1.5–2 cm in flower and fruit. Flowers radially symmetric; calyx somewhat accrescent, unarmed, 3–4 mm, glabrous, lobes deltate; corolla blue to deep purple, rotate-stellate, lobes acute at apex, 3–4 cm diam., with abundant inter­petalar tissue; stamens equal; anthers oblong, slightly tapered, 3–4 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores that sometimes open into longitudinal slits; ovary glabrous. Berries bright orange to red, obovoid to ellipsoidal, 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 cm, glabrous, with sclerotic granules inconspic­uous to absent. Seeds reddish brown, flattened, 1.5–2 × 1.5–2 mm, finely reticulate. 2n = 46.

Flowering Jan–Jul. Open, disturbed sites; 0–2000 m; introduced; Calif., Oreg.; Pacific Islands (New Guinea, New Zealand); Australia.

The name Solanum laciniatum Aiton has been mis­applied to S. aviculare (for example, M. Nee 1993). Although only S. aviculare is listed in that treatment as occurring in California, both S. aviculare and S. laciniatum apparently are found there, and most photos labeled S. aviculare on the CalFlora website are of S. laciniatum. Solanum laciniatum has notched and ruffled corolla lobes with abundant interpetalar tissue (versus acute and entire corolla lobes with little inter­petalar tissue in S. aviculare) and yellow fruits (versus red) with numerous stone cells (versus stone cells incon­spicuous to absent).

Solanum aviculare and S. laciniatum have been intro­duced from Australia and New Zealand as ornamentals and now are found in scattered localities in California, especially near the coast. Some plants have escaped and become naturalized, and these species have the potential to be invasive in the future.