Solanum scabrumMill.

garden-huckleberry

WFO wfo-0001031072 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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 scabrum, photographed by 葉子
fig. a 葉子, CC0 1.0 / 2020-03-09 / obs. 63324821
Solanum scabrum, photographed by 葉子
fig. b 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 63324759
Solanum scabrum, photographed by 葉子
fig. c 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 63324762
Solanum scabrum, photographed by Поляков Александр
fig. d Поляков Александр, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155322259
Solanum scabrum, photographed by Поляков Александр
fig. e Поляков Александр, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155322305
Solanum scabrum, photographed by Поляков Александр
fig. f Поляков Александр, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155322342
Solanum scabrum, photographed by Поляков Александр
fig. g Поляков Александр, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155322377
Solanum scabrum, photographed by Поляков Александр
fig. h Поляков Александр, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155322417

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 43 botanical countries

Regions where Solanum scabrum is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCentral African RepublicChadCongoDjiboutiDR CongoEritreaEthiopiaFree StateGabonGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoLiberiaMadagascarMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaNorthern ProvincesSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe ComorosSeychelles
Native distribution of Solanum scabrum, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Comoros COM
Congo CON
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Senegal SEN
Seychelles SEY
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

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 58 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -12.0 °C 1.0 °C 21.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.2 °C 26.1 °C 33.5 °C
Annual rainfall 657 mm 1,205 mm 4,683 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 45 mm 128 mm 554 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 58 research-grade observations of Solanum scabrum 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 29 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 boerhaavii Thell.
  • Solanum burbankii var. burbankii
  • Solanum fistulosum Dunal
  • Solanum guineense (L.) Mill.
  • Solanum guineense (L.) Lam.
  • Solanum guineense var. guineense
  • Solanum intrusum Soria
  • Solanum melanocerasum All.
  • Solanum melanocerasum Willd.
  • Solanum melanocerasum (Willd.) Miq.
  • Solanum memphiticum Mart.
  • Solanum nigrum Acerbi ex Dunal
  • Solanum nigrum f. melanocerasum (Willd.) Miq.
  • Solanum nigrum subsp. cultum Filov
  • Solanum nigrum var. guineense L.
  • Solanum nigrum var. melanocerasum (Willd.) G.Don
  • Solanum nigrum var. melanocerasum (Willd.) Dunal
  • Solanum nigrum var. memphiticum (Mart.) Marzell
  • Solanum nigrum var. pterocaulum (Dunal) Schur
  • Solanum nitens Opiz
  • Solanum nodiflorum var. sativum A.Chev.
  • Solanum oleraceum var. macrocarpum Dunal
  • Solanum pterocaulon Rchb. ex Nyman
  • Solanum pterocaulon var. dichotimiflorum Dunal

and 5 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.