Herbs, perennial, erect, sparsely to moderately armed, to 1 m, prickles cream to yellowish, straight or slightly curved, to 15 mm, nearly glabrous or sparsely to densely pubescent, hairs yellowish, sessile to short-stalked, stellate, (4–)6–8-rayed, central ray 1–2-celled and longer than lateral rays. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1–6 cm; blade simple, broadly ovate, 7–22 × 8–18 cm, margins shallowly to deeply lobed with 2–5 lobes per side, lobe margins entire to coarsely lobed, base truncate to cuneate and often oblique. Inflorescences extra-axillary, forked to several times branched, to 15-flowered, 7–15 cm. Pedicels 1–2 cm in flower, curved downward and to ca. 2.4 cm in fruit. Flowers radially symmetric; calyx not accrescent, unarmed or sparsely prickled, 7–13 mm, densely stellate-pubescent, lobes ovate-lanceolate; corolla lavender, stellate to stellate-pentagonal or rotate-stellate, 2–4.4 cm diam., with sparse to moderate interpetalar tissue at margins and base of lobes; stamens equal; anthers narrow and tapered, 4–10 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores; ovary glabrous. Berries yellow, subglobose, 1.8–3.5 × 2–4 cm, glabrous, without sclerotic granules. Seeds yellow, flattened, ca. 2 × 2.5 mm, minutely pitted. 2n = ca. 72.

Flowering May–Aug. Disturbed areas, peanut and cotton fields, roadsides, grazed pastures, urban waste areas; 90–200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., Miss.

Solanum perplexum is similar to S. dimidiatum and was placed in synonymy with S. dimidiatum by W. G. D’Arcy (1974). The two species can be distinguished by their indumentum [golden stellate hairs with six to eight (rarely as few as four) lateral rays with the central ray one- or two-celled and longer than lateral rays in S. perplexum versus whitish stellate hairs with six to ten (rarely as few as four) lateral rays with the central ray one-celled and equal to or shorter than lateral rays in S. dimidiatum], the larger prickles on the stems and leaves (up to 15 mm in S. perplexum versus up to 6.5 mm in S. dimidiatum), and the larger leaves (up to 22 × 18 cm in S. perplexum versus up to 16 × 10 cm in S. dimidiatum).

Solanum perplexum occurs mainly in the region where the borders of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia meet, with a single outlying population known from western Mississippi.