Solanaceae FAMILY

Solanum nigrescens

Edibility

2/5

Medicinal

3/5

Safety & Hazards

Although providing many well-known foods for people, including the potato, tomato, pepper and aubergine, most species in this genus also contain toxic alkaloids. Whilst these alkaloids can make the plant useful in treaing a range of medical conditions, they can also cause problems such as nausea, vomiting, salivation, drowsiness, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, weakness and respiratory depression^[1]. Unless there are specific entries with information on edible uses, it would be unwise to ingest any part of this plant^[PFAF].

Cultivation Details

HabitPerennial

Growth—

Solanum nigrescens has a wide geographical range, from the warm temperate regions of southeastern N. America to the tropics of S. America. Plants will often flower in their first year from seed^[2].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in a greenhouse. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. Cuttings of greenwood in a frame^[3]. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Solanum+nigrescens>

Pollinators

Insects

References

[1]Poisonous Plants of North Carolina — http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/poison.htm ↩︎An excellent concise but comprehensive guide to toxic plants that grow in N. Carolina. It lists even those plants that are of very low toxicity, including several well-known food plants such as carrots and potatoes.
[2]Flora of SW Arizona — University of Arizona Herbarium · https://cals.arizona.edu/herbarium/content/flora-sw-arizona ↩︎An excellent flora, published on-line in PDF format
[3]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
[4]Flora of Guatemala — Standley P.C. & J. A. Steyermark · 1946 - 1976 · http://www.archive.org/ ↩︎A superb reference, though somewhat dated. Gives lots of plant uses as well as information on plant habit and habitat. The entire flora (13 volumes) can now be downloaded from http://www.archive.org/
[5]Food Plants in the Americas: A Survey of the Domesticated, Cultivated, and Wild Plants Used for Human Food in North, — Kermath B.M.; Bennett B.C.' Pulsipher L.M. · 2014 ↩︎A pre-publication draft of an amazing, on-going work first started in 1985. It contains information on more than 3,900 taxa from the Americas - from Arctic regions to the Tropics
[6]Enciclopedia de las Plantas Útiles del Ecuador — de la Torre, L., Navarrete H., P. Muriel M., Macía M.J. & Ba · Herbario QCA de la Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas de la Pontific · 2008 · ISBN 978-9978-77-135-8 ↩︎
[PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎