Solanum dulcamara
species of plant
Solanum dulcamara is a species of vine in the genus Solanum (which also includes the potato and the tomato) of the family Solanaceae. Common names include bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, bitter nightshade, blue bindweed, Amara Dulcis, climbing nightshade, felonwort, fellenwort, felonwood, poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom, and woody nightshade.
It is native to Europe and Asia, and widely naturalised elsewhere, including North America.
Overview
It occurs in a very wide range of habitats, from woodlands to scrubland, hedges and marshes.
Solanum dulcamara is a semi-woody herbaceous perennial vine, which scrambles over other plants, capable of reaching a height of 4 m where suitable support is available, but more often 1–2 m high. The leaves are 4–12 cm long, roughly arrowhead-shaped, and often lobed at the base. The flowers are in loose clusters of 3–20, 1–1.5 cm across, star-shaped, with five purple petals and yellow stamens and style pointing forward. The fruit is an ovoid red berry about 1 cm long, soft and juicy, with the aspect and odour of a tiny tomato, and edible for some birds, which disperse the seeds widely. However, the berry is poisonous to humans and livestock, and the berry's attractive and familiar look makes it dangerous for children.
It has a long flowering season and can flower from May through November.Its fruit persists for an average of 19.5 days, and bears an average of 17.9 seeds per fruit.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Solanum dulcamara” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Solanum, dulcamara and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Solanum dulcamara” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.