Solanum jamaicenseMill.

Jamaican nightshade

WFO wfo-0001028736 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Solanum jamaicense, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. a Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-22 / obs. 199223506
Solanum jamaicense, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. b Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176569904
Solanum jamaicense, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. c Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 143103471
Solanum jamaicense, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. d Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 68107284
Solanum jamaicense, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. e Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 68107941
Solanum jamaicense, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. f Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60921531
Solanum jamaicense, photographed by Valerie Anderson
fig. g Valerie Anderson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 28585824
Solanum jamaicense, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. h Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169934910

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 26 botanical countries

Regions where Solanum jamaicense is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorFrench GuianaGuyanaHaitiJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Windward Is.
Native distribution of Solanum jamaicense, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Jamaica JAM
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 232 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 14.1 °C 21.1 °C 23.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.7 °C 30.6 °C 33.1 °C
Annual rainfall 1,360 mm 2,875 mm 4,796 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 62 mm 294 mm 594 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 232 research-grade observations of Solanum jamaicense that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 14 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 brevipilosum Dunal
  • Solanum brevipilum Dunal
  • Solanum croceum Dunal
  • Solanum cuneifolium Dunal
  • Solanum cuneifolium Roem. & Schult.
  • Solanum decurrens Banks ex Dunal
  • Solanum dubium Fresen
  • Solanum dubium Dunal
  • Solanum dubium var. dubium
  • Solanum dubium var. dubium
  • Solanum heterotrichum Dunal
  • Solanum portoricense Dunal
  • Solanum umbellatum Banks ex Dunal
  • Solanum willdenovianum G.Don

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.