When does silverleaf nightshade bloom in California?

Most often in August. Across 283 dated, research-grade observations of Solanum elaeagnifolium in California, the flowering season runs roughly April to September.

Peak August In flower 283 Examined 452 State California

Flowering 283 in flower of 452 examined

81%

90%

93%

94%

95%

80%

23%

Proportion of examined Solanum elaeagnifolium in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	0	25	0%	0% to 13%
Feb	0	18	0%	0% to 18%
Mar	1	19	5%	1% to 25%
Apr	44	54	81%	69% to 90%
May	54	60	90%	80% to 95%
Jun	50	54	93%	82% to 97%
Jul	47	50	94%	84% to 98%
Aug	40	42	95%	84% to 99%
Sep	39	49	80%	66% to 89%
Oct	7	30	23%	12% to 41%
Nov	1	26	4%	1% to 19%
Dec	0	25	0%	0% to 13%

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Solanum elaeagnifolium in California observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 283 of 452 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in California found Solanum elaeagnifolium in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in California, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Solanum elaeagnifolium

silverleaf nightshade

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in California. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.