White-margined or purple African nightshade

Herbs or shrubs, erect, mod­erately armed, 1–2 m, prickles pale orange, straight or slightly curved, 5–12 mm, densely bright white-pubescent, hairs short-stalked, stellate, 10–20-rayed, central ray equal to lateral rays. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1.5–6 cm; blade simple, ovate, 8–23 × 7–13 cm, margins coarsely lobed with 3–4 lobes per side, lobe margins entire to coarsely lobed, base cordate. Inflorescences extra-axillary or leaf-opposed, occasionally sessile, unbranched or forked, 6–15(–30)-flowered, 3.5–8 cm. Pedicels 0.5–2 cm in flower, pendent and 2–3 cm in fruit. Flowers radially symmetric; calyx accrescent and subtending fruit, sparsely to moderately armed, 7–15 mm, densely stellate-pubescent, lobes broadly deltate; corolla white to pale purple, rotate-stellate, 2.5–4 cm diam., with abundant interpetalar tissue; stamens equal; anthers narrow and tapered, 5.5–7 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores; ovary moderately stellate-pubescent. Berries yellow, dark green mottled with white when young, globose, 3.5–4(–5) cm diam., glabrous, without sclerotic granules. Seeds light brown, flattened, 2.5–3.5 × 2–2.5 mm, minutely pitted. 2n = 24.

Flowering May–Aug. Disturbed sites; 0–1000 m; introduced; Calif.; Asia; Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia); intro­duced also in South America, Europe, Atlantic Islands (Canary Islands), Australia.

Solanum marginatum is naturalized along the central and southern coast of California, where it has been listed as a noxious weed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. There are few recent collections.