Forked nightshade

Herbs, annual or perennial, erect to sprawling, unarmed, to 1 m, sparsely pubescent, hairs unbranched, to 0.5 mm, eglandular. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1–3.5 cm; blade simple, ovate-lanceolate, 3–10 × 2–5 cm, margins entire to sinuate-dentate, base cuneate to trun­cate. Inflorescences extra-axillary, forked, umbel-like or racemelike, 6–14-flowered, 1.5–3 cm. Pedicels straight and spreading and 0.5–1 cm in flower, strongly reflexed and 0.5–1 cm in fruit. Flowers radially symmetric; calyx not accrescent, unarmed, 3–4 mm, sparsely pubescent, lobes obtuse; corolla white to pale purple with yellowish or greenish central star, stellate, 1–2 cm diam., with sparse interpetalar tissue; stamens equal; anthers ellipsoidal, 2.5–3.5 mm, dehis­cent by terminal pores that open into longitudinal slits; ovary glabrous. Berries dull green to purple, globose, 0.5–0.9 cm diam., glabrous, with 6–14 sclerotic granules per fruit. Seeds pale yellow to light brown, flattened, 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 mm, finely reticulate. 2n = 72.

Flowering May–Oct. Open and disturbed areas near sea cliffs, bluffs, and on sand dunes; 0–500 m; intro­duced; Calif., Oreg., Wash.; South America (Argentina, Chile); introduced also in Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia.

Solanum furcatum is found in coastal environments in the western United States. M. Nee (1993) stated that the name S. gayanum (J. Remy) F. Philippi has been misapplied to plants of S. furcatum, but no basis can be found for this assertion and the two species are mor­phologically very different. Solanum gayanum, a syno­nym of S. crispum Ruiz & Pavon, and native to Chile, is cultivated and perhaps naturalized in San Francisco, California (P. A. Munz 1968).

Solanum furcatum can be distinguished from the similar and sympatric S. douglasii by its usually forked inflorescences and fruits with usually more than ten sclerotic granules. A distinctive character of S. furcatum is the long style that is about twice the length of the anthers.