Solanum aethiopicumL.

Ethiopian nightshade

WFO wfo-0001025760 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Solanum aethiopicum, photographed by Diogo Luiz
fig. a Diogo Luiz, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-06-11 / obs. 58161294
Solanum aethiopicum, photographed by Steven Bodzin
fig. b Steven Bodzin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 31152392
Solanum aethiopicum, photographed by Diogo Luiz
fig. c Diogo Luiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 52959118
Solanum aethiopicum, photographed by Diogo Luiz
fig. d Diogo Luiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58161225
Solanum aethiopicum, photographed by Douglas
fig. e Douglas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 22775436
Solanum aethiopicum, photographed by Douglas
fig. f Douglas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 22775442
Solanum aethiopicum, photographed by Douglas
fig. g Douglas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 22775450

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 2 botanical countries

Regions where Solanum aethiopicum is native: Eritrea, Ethiopia EritreaEthiopia
Native distribution of Solanum aethiopicum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Eritrea ERI AFRICA
Ethiopia ETH

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 62 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Lycopersicon aethiopicum (L.) Mill.
  • Pseudocapsicum torulosum Moench
  • Solanum aethiopicum Jacq.
  • Solanum aethiopicum var. aculeatum Dunal
  • Solanum aethiopicum var. aethiopicum
  • Solanum aethiopicum var. armatum Bitter
  • Solanum aethiopicum var. giorgii (De Wild.) Bitter
  • Solanum aethiopicum var. inerme Dunal
  • Solanum aethiopicum var. integrifolium (Poir.) O.E.Schulz
  • Solanum aethiopicum var. modicelobatum Bitter
  • Solanum aethiopicum var. paaschenianum (H.J.P.Winkl.) Bitter
  • Solanum aurantiacum Sendtn.
  • Solanum aurantium Larrañaga
  • Solanum brieyi De Wild.
  • Solanum elaeagnifolium Herb.Willdenow ex Steud.
  • Solanum elskensii De Wild.
  • Solanum geminifolium Thonn.
  • Solanum gilo Raddi
  • Solanum gilo Req. ex Dunal
  • Solanum gilo subsp. gilo
  • Solanum gilo subsp. megalacanthum Bitter
  • Solanum gilo subsp. monteiroi (C.H.Wright) Bitter
  • Solanum gilo var. ellipsoideum Bitter
  • Solanum gilo var. erectifructum Bitter

and 38 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.