Texas nightshade

Solanum lindheimerianum Scheele

Vines, semiwoody or scram­blers with enlarged woody base, to 2 m, occasionally erect subshrubs to 0.5 m, unarmed, glabrous to densely pubescent, hairs usually ascending and pointing distally on stems, weak, unbranched, to 0.5 mm. Leaves petiolate; petiole 0.3–1.2 cm; blade simple, deltate to hastate or triangular, sometimes linear, (1–)1.8–5 × (0.3–)1–3.5 cm, margins entire to basally 2-lobed, lobe margins entire, base truncate to subcordate or hastate. Inflorescences terminal or lateral, leaf-opposed or occasionally extra-axillary, unbranched or occasionally forked, 3–6-flowered, 1–3 cm. Pedicels inserted into small sleeve on inflorescence axis, 0.6–1.2 cm in flower, 1–1.5 cm in fruit. Flowers radially symmetric; calyx not accrescent, unarmed, 2.5–3.5 mm, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, lobes triangular-acuminate; corolla white or tinged with purple, often with shiny green or greenish white eye, stellate, 1.5–2 cm diam., without interpetalar tissue; stamens equal; anthers oblong, slightly tapered, 3.5–4 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores that open into longitudinal slits; ovary glabrous. Berries bright shiny red, globose, 1–1.5 cm diam., glabrous, without sclerotic granules. Seeds reddish brown, plump-reniform to flattened, ca. 4 × 2.5 mm, minutely pitted. 2n = 24.

Flowering year-round. Slopes, thickets, moist places; 0–1400 m; Tex.; Mexico (Coahuila, Durango, Hidalgo, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas).

Solanum triquetrum is widespread in central, south­ern, and western Texas. It could be confused with S. dulcamara, which also has shiny green dots at the corolla lobe bases, but the flowers of S. triquetrum are white and the leaves more sharply triangular. Leaf shape and size in S. triquetrum are extremely variable (S. Knapp 2013).