Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Climbing Nightshade is a perennial introduced vine without tendrils that grows near other plants for support and can reach many feet in length. Stems are purple color when new, then turning a greenish-brown; some with fine hair initially, older parts are woody.

The leaves are alternate, stalked, about 2x as long as wide, simple, but usually deeply lobed near the base forming two distinct lower lobes and sometimes four. The part of the leaf stalk nearest the base of the leaf has a small wing. The terminal lobe is the largest and broadest. The leaves face the sunlight and the flower clusters face a different direction.

The inflorescence is an open branched cluster that arises opposite a leaf at a stem node. This is different from Black Nightshade where the cluster arises between the leaf nodes. The ends of the stem with the branched flower clusters are usually strong enough to be self supporting.

The flowers are no more than 1/2 inch wide, blue to purple/violet, 5-part; the lobes of the purple corolla unfold and curve backwards uncovering the five yellow stamens and anthers which are united and form a cone around the pistil, resembling the Shooting Star flower. A single style extends beyond the anthers. There are yellow to greenish spots at the base of the corolla inside. the cluster stalks and the flower buds are also purple/violet. The calyx of the flower is usually purple, but can be greenish. It has 5 rounded lobes which are persistent on the base of the berry that forms.

The fruit is a small 1/4 inch berry, turning from green to a brilliant red. Berries are produced throughout the growing season and in the fall the red berries are often remaining long after the leaves have dropped. Each berry contains up to 12 yellow oval beaked seeds, 2 mm to 2.5 mm long.

Toxic: The foliage is toxic to many people and should be handled with care. The fruit is said to also be toxic, particularly to children.

Habitat: Climbing Nightshade grows from rhizomes and adapts well to many soil conditions and is difficult to eliminate as a small section of the rhizome left in the ground will generate a new plant. The root system is not a dense mass but spreads far with rooting at stem nodes that lie on the ground. It grows best in full sun and moist to mesic conditions. You will find it in marshes, woods, disturbed sites.

Names: The alternate common name of Bittersweet Nightshade comes from the leaves and root, which when crushed have a sweet followed by a bitter taste. The genus name Solanum comes from the Latin Solor, meaning "I ease" referring to the somewhat narcotic power of some folk medicines created from the plant. The species name, dulcamara, according to Mrs. Grieve (Ref.#7) is derived from a word meaning Bittersweet that was used in the Middle Ages and written Amaradulcis and has been corrupted to dulcamara. The author name for the plant classification - 'L.' is for Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy.

As to the other common names, 'Dulcamara' is explained above. 'Wood Nightshade' was used by old herbalists to distinguish the plant from Belladonna (Deadly Nightshade). As to Felonwood, Mrs. Grieve (Ref. #7) states that that it is probably derived from Felonwort - a plant for treating felons (as explained in the medicinal section at the page bottom). Felon is an old name referring to an abscess of the soft tissue near a fingernail or toenail. A felon was later called a 'whitlow.'

Comparisons: Another nightshade to be encountered is Black Nightshade, Solanum nigrum L., which tends to grow in similar areas but has flowers with a whitish corolla where the petals spread but do not reflex and the berries turn black at maturity. The flower clusters also rise between leaf axils, not opposite a leaf axil.