Fancy nightshade

Herbs, perennial, spreading, moderately to densely armed, 0.2–0.5 m, prickles pale, straight, to 8 mm, glabrate to sparsely or moderately pubes­cent, hairs unbranched, glan­dular or eglandular, abaxial leaf surfaces with some sessile stel­late hairs, 4–6-rayed, cen­tral ray equal to lateral rays. Leaves petiolate; petiole 2–6 cm; blade simple to 2–3 times lobed to compound, broadly ovate to elliptic, 4–9 × 2–7 cm, margins 2–3 times lobed to 2–3 times divided with 2–3 main leaflets per side, leaflets lobed to pinnately dissected, base truncate. Inflorescences extra-axillary, unbranched, 6–9-flowered, 4–9 cm. Pedicels 1–2 cm in flower, erect and 2–3 cm in fruit. Flowers bilaterally sym­metric; calyx accrescent and almost completely and tightly covering fruit, mod­erately to densely prickly, 4–6 mm, sparsely to moder­ately pubescent, lobes linear to lanceolate; corolla violet or blue, stellate, 2.5–3.5 cm diam., with sparse inter­petalar tissue; stamens unequal, lowermost much longer and curved; anthers narrow and tapered, dehiscent by terminal pores, short anthers 7–10 mm, longer anther 12–20 mm; ovary glabrous. Berries brown, globose to depressed-globose, 0.7–1 cm diam., glabrous, dry, with­out sclerotic granules. Seeds dark brown, plump, 2.8–3.6 × 2–3 mm, minutely pitted and irregularly ridged. 2n = 24.

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora): Texas, nc Mexico.

Lower Taxa

• Solanum tenuipes var. latisectum Whalen
• Solanum tenuipes var. tenuipes