Nightshade

Nile region and Gebel Elba.

Egypt, southwest Asia, drier parts of tropical Africa.

Fairly common in the plains and the lower hills up to 1400 m. The plant parts are said to be medicinal, being used as a remedy for toothache, sore throats and in chest complaints.

Shrub up to 120 cm tall. Stems and branches yellowish-green with dense stellate tomentum and prickly; prickles conical, up to 8 mm long, straight or curved, yellow. Leaves 3.5-8 x 2.5-6.5 cm, ovate to broadly ovate, sinuate, grayish-green dense stellately hairy, veins with a few prickles. Peduncles 10-20 mm long, often paired; one bearing bisexual flowers and the other a short raceme of (2-) 3-5 male flowers. Flowers purple-blue. Pedicel and calyx stellately tomentose and sparsely prickled. Calyx 6-7 mm long, often thickened in fruit. Corolla limb 3-3.5 cm broad; lobes triangular, 9-11 mm long, dense stellate-tomentose, sparsely so within. Anthers 5-6 mm long, elongated. Style and ovary glabrescent. Berry globose, 25-30 mm long, yellow. Seeds ± 2.5 mm broad, subreniform, minutely reticulate-rugose, pale- brown.

Distribution: Iran, Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, Arabia, Pakistan and India.

Fl. Per.: mostly throughout the year.

incanum: hoary, white

Herbaceous or soft wooded shrub, 0.5 to 3 m. A very variable species, which may be armed on most parts, including the leaves, or may occasionally be unarmed. Stems and undersides of leaves may be densely covered in a whitish felt of stellate hairs, turning glabrescent with age. Leaves from lanceolate to broadly ovate; margin entire to deeply lobed with broadly triangular or rounded lobes; prickles on the midrib and lateal veins may or may not be present. Flowers in clusters along the branches, sometimes axillary or leaf-opposed; corolla pale to deep blue, mauve or purple, occasionally white, 1.5 cm in diameter, fragrant. Fruit spherical, green, often striped or mottled with white, turning yellow to orange-brown when ripe.

Common

Of unknown origin, but now widespread throughout the paleotropics.

Solanum incanum is a species of nightshade, a flowering plant in the family Solanaceae. It is native to Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, eastwards to India. The species was introduced to Taiwan and Vietnam.

Common names include thorn apple, bitter apple, bitterball and bitter tomato It may be confused with the similar S. linnaeanum where their ranges overlap in Africa. In ancient India, Solanum incanum was domesticated into the eggplant, Solanum melongena. In biblical literature, it is sometimes used as a "hedge of thorns" (Hebrew: מְשֻׂכַת חָדֶק).