American Black Nightshade (Solanum Americanum)

Solanaceae (Nightshade Family) 

Group: Dicot (Broadleaf)

Erect annual or short-lived perennial herb, native of the American tropics. It is commonly found in cultivated fields, waste lands, roadsides, and non-crop areas.

Seedling stem below the cotyledons are green and covered with small hairs. Cotyledons are smooth, ovate (egg-shaped), green on the upper and lower surfaces, with short small hairs on the margins. The first true leaf is ovate. Subsequent young leaves are alternate, wavy, hairy on the margins, with a long petiole covered with small hairs.

Leaves of mature plants are alternate, simple, petioled, rounded but longer than wide (egg-shape outline), smooth or hairy.

Stems are erect, branching, smooth or hairy, and up to 3 feet tall.

Flower or seed head is star-shaped, white with yellow middles

Fruit is green spherical berries and turn black as they mature. Each berry contains 50 to 110 seeds.

Roots are fibrous from a shallow taproot.

Propagation is by seed.