Solanum subgenus Lycianthes Dunal in A. de Candolle, Prodr. 13(1): 161. 1852.

Shrubs, subshrubs, or rarely herbs or creeping herbs, unarmed; pubescence of many-celled, simple or 2- to many-branched hairs. Leaves solitary, paired, or sometimes unequal paired; leaf blade entire. Inflorescences 1-10-flowered fascicles in leaf axils; peduncle obsolete or absent. Flowers actinomorphic, 5- or rarely 4-merous, pedicellate. Calyx cup-shaped, truncate, often with 5-10 subapical teeth; teeth linear-subulate or umbonate, equal or not. Corolla white or purple-blue, rotate or stellate, shallowly or deeply divided. Stamens inserted at apex of corolla tube; filaments short, equal; anthers elliptic dehiscing by oblique apical pores. Ovary 2-locular; ovules numerous. Style glabrous. Fruit a red or red-purple berry, globose. Seeds small, numerous, deltate, deltate-reniform, or lenticular, finely reticulate.

About 180 species: most in Central and South America, ten species in China.