Solanum diphyllum

Common Name: twoleaf nightshade

Family: Solanaceae

Common Synonyms: none

USDA Hardiness Zone: 9a-11

Growth Habit: Shrub

Origin: Mexico, Central America

FISC Category: 2

FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No

Introduction Date: Earliest Florida specimen vouchered in 1966.

IFAS Assessment:

• North: CAUTION
• Central: CAUTION
• South: CAUTION

Description

Shrub upright, up to 2 m tall. Branches smooth, dark maroon brown turning white with age. Leaves paired, larger major leaf widest at the center, 4.7-6.8 cm long and 2.2 cm wide, minor leaf up 1.5 cm long and 1.4 cm wide. Flowers in upper leaf axils, white turning whitish-lavender, 1 cm wide. Fruit a globose berry, to 1.2 cm in diameter, yellow to orange and fleshy when ripe.

Habitat

Floodplain forest, maritime hammock, rockland hammock.

Comments

Widespread in central and south but not in north.

Control Methods

• Manual: Mechanical: pull and destroy individual plants when practical.
• Chemical: NA
• Biological: The leaf-eating chrysomelid beetle Leptinotarsa undecimlineata, is reported to be host-specific and might be a useful control agent

Control Notes

No specific treatments available.

References

Dave's Garden. 2013. PlantFiles: Twoleaf nightshade, Solanum diphyllum. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/96741/. Accessed on December 10, 2013.

IFAS, Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. 2013. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/AG/AG31800.pdf. Accessed on December 10, 2013.

Long, R. W. and O. Lakela. A Flora of Tropical Florida. 1971. Banyan Books, Miami, Florida.