New Zealand nightshade, kangaroo-apple

Shrubs, erect, unarmed, 1–3 m, glabrous. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1–1.5 cm; blade simple, elliptic, 10–30 × 1.5–15 cm, margins entire to coarsely pinnatifid with 1–3 lobes per side, lobe margins entire, base cuneate. Inflorescences leaf-opposed or in branch forks, unbranched or forked, to 10-flowered, 5–15 cm. Pedicels 1.5–3 cm in flower and fruit. Flowers radially symmetric; calyx somewhat accrescent, unarmed, 3–4 mm, glabrous, lobes deltate; corolla blue to deep purple, rotate-stellate, 3–5 cm diam., lobes notched at apex, with abundant interpetalar tissue; stamens equal; anthers oblong, slightly tapered, 3–4 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores that sometimes open into longitudinal slits; ovary glabrous. Berries yellow to orange-yellow, ovoid to obovoid, 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 cm, glabrous, with abundant sclerotic granules. Seeds reddish brown, flattened, 2.5–3 × 2–2.5 mm, concentrically reticulate. 2n = 92.

Flowering Jan–Jul. Open, disturbed sites; 0–100 m; introduced; Calif.; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia.

Solanum laciniatum has often been confused with S. aviculare in floras. See discussion under 2. S. aviculare.