Solanum nigrescensM.Martens & Galeotti

divine nightshade

WFO wfo-0001029804 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Solanum nigrescens, photographed by Diego López
fig. a Diego López, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-02-17 / obs. 113249009
Solanum nigrescens, photographed by Francisco Martínez González
fig. b Francisco Martínez González, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 95643124
Solanum nigrescens, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. c Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 64317387
Solanum nigrescens, photographed by Lena Struwe
fig. d Lena Struwe, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 29146477
Solanum nigrescens, photographed by José Belem Hernández Díaz
fig. e José Belem Hernández Díaz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10252182
Solanum nigrescens, photographed by José Belem Hernández Díaz
fig. f José Belem Hernández Díaz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 9986331
Solanum nigrescens, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. g Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 5238615
Solanum nigrescens, photographed by Ignacio Moreira-Corral
fig. h Ignacio Moreira-Corral, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 173831378

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 35 botanical countries

Regions where Solanum nigrescens is native: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. AlabamaFloridaLouisianaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMississippiNew MexicoNorth CarolinaTexasBelizeColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPuerto RicoTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela BahamasCayman Is.Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Solanum nigrescens, 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
Bahamas BAH SOUTHERN AMERICA
Belize BLZ
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Puerto Rico PUE
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Florida FLA
Louisiana LOU
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
New Mexico NWM
North Carolina NCA
Texas TEX

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.

Flowering 66 in flower of 70 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Solanum nigrescens 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. 66 of 70 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 3 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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.cgje2x.

Also published as 18 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 amethystinum (Kuntze) Heiser
  • Solanum approximatum Bitter
  • Solanum caribaeum Dunal
  • Solanum costaricense Heiser
  • Solanum crenatodentatum var. ramosissimum Dunal
  • Solanum durangoense Bitter
  • Solanum frutescens A.Braun & C.D.Bouché
  • Solanum gollmeri Bitter
  • Solanum jahnii Bitter ex Pittier
  • Solanum nigrum var. amethystinum Kuntze
  • Solanum nigrum var. nigrescens (M.Martens & Galeotti) Kuntze
  • Solanum nodiflorum var. puberulum Dunal
  • Solanum oligospermum Bitter
  • Solanum prionopterum Bitter
  • Solanum pruinosum var. phyllolophum Bitter
  • Solanum purpuratum Bitter
  • Solanum subelineatum Bitter
  • Solanum sublineatum 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.