Solanum giganteumJacq.

bitter-apple treehealing-leaf bitter-applehealing-leaf treered bitter-applethorny bugtree

WFO wfo-0001028109 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Solanum giganteum, photographed by Mark Liptrot
fig. a Mark Liptrot, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-01 / obs. 194732335

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 22 botanical countries

Regions where Solanum giganteum is native: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Congo, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, India, Sri Lanka BurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCongoDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGabonKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZimbabweIndiaSri Lanka
Native distribution of Solanum giganteum, 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
Burundi BUR AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zimbabwe ZIM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Sri Lanka SRL

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 16 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.

  • Solanum argenteum B.Heyne ex Wall.
  • Solanum bequaertii De Wild.
  • Solanum farinaceum Griff.
  • Solanum farinosum Wall.
  • Solanum farinosum Wall.
  • Solanum giganteum var. giganteum
  • Solanum giganteum var. longifolium Dunal
  • Solanum giganteum var. tenuifolium Dunal
  • Solanum mildbraedii Dammer
  • Solanum muansense Dammer
  • Solanum muansense subsp. mildbraedii (Dammer) Bitter
  • Solanum muansense subsp. muansense
  • Solanum nilghiry Noton ex Dunal
  • Solanum niveum Vahl
  • Solanum seretii De Wild.
  • Solanum sordidescens Bitter

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.