Solanum nigrum

Solanum nigrum L., Sp. Pl. 186. 1753; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 4: 229. 1885; Collett, Fl. Siml. ed. 2: 341. 1921 (Reprint 1980); Dhaliwal & Sharma, Fl. Kullu Dist. 471. 1999; Kaur & Sharma, Fl. Sirmaur 457. 2004; Singh & Sharma, Fl. Chamba Dist. 497. 2006.

Annual herb, 15-100 cm tall with suffrutescent base, sparsely or much branched. Stem often angular, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves alternate, petiolate; petiole 2-5 cm, pubescent; leaf blade 2-20 cm x 2-5.5 cm, pubescent or glabrescent, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, base cuneate, decurrent, margin entire, coarsely dentate, sinuate-toothed or lobed. Flowers white or bluish, actinomorphic, bisexual, 5-merous, hypogynous; in subumbellate, extra-axillary cymes; peduncle 0.5-2.5 cm long, pubescent; pedicels 0.3-1.2 cm long, drooping. Calyx 2-3 mm x 2-3 mm, square or cup-shaped, pubescent, 5-lobed, lobes ovate-oblong to subdeltate, obtuse, persistent. Corolla rotate, white, 8-10 mm across; tube short; limb spreading, lobes 5, 4-5 mm x 3-3.5 mm, ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, acute, pubescent abaxially. Stamens 5, inserted high in corolla tube, exserted; anthers oblong, 2.5-3.5 mm long, coherent in a projecting cone around style, dehiscing by apical pores; filaments as long as or shorter than the anthers, pilose. Carpels 2, syncarpous; ovary glabrous, 2-locular, many ovules per loculus with placenta swollen, placentation axile; style 5-6 mm long, +/- included, pubescent at base; stigma green, capitate, bifid; Berry dull black or orange-red, globose to subovoid, 5-10 mm in diameter; fruiting pedicel strongly deflexed; fruiting calyx applied to berry. Seeds discoid, compressed, glabrous, ca. 2 mm in diameter

Flowering and Fruiting: Almost throughout the year, mainly May to November
Common Names: Black Nightshade, Blackberry Nightshade, Nightshade; Mako, Makoi (Hindi)