Solanum marginatum

White-margined nightshade, White-Margined Nightshade

Family: Solanaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

White-margined nightshade is a naturalized perennial found in coastal California regions including the central and southern coast in disturbed places at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from January to September, this plant produces white to pale purple flowers 30 to 40 millimeters in diameter with purple petal midveins and throat. Growing as a shrub up to 2 meters tall with distinctive pale orange prickles 5 to 12 millimeters long, it has a coarsely prickly texture with dense stellate hairs. Its large 8 to 23 centimeter leaves are widely ovate with cordate bases, wavy-lobed margins, and densely white-stellate undersides that appear white-margined and green. The fruit is tough and mottled dark green and white, eventually turning yellow, containing numerous small seeds.

Habitat: Disturbed places

Bloom period: Jan-Sep

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: CCo, SCo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.