Solanum umbelliferum

Blue witch nightshade

Family: Solanaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Blue witch nightshade is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the central valley delta region, central western, and southwestern California in shrubland, mixed-evergreen forest, and woodland at elevations below 1,600 meters. Flowering all year, this plant produces lavender to blue-purple (occasionally white) flowers 15 to 50 millimeters in diameter with distinctive green spots and white margins at the base of each corolla lobe. Growing as a shrub or herb up to 3 meters tall, it is often much-branched with variable hairiness ranging from glabrous to long-hairy. Its leaves vary widely from linear to widely ovate, 1 to 11 centimeters long, with margins that can be entire or irregularly lobed and sometimes wavy or crinkled. The fruit is a spherical berry 12 to 40 millimeters in diameter, which can appear green, white, yellow, or purple-black when mature.

Habitat: Shrubland, mixed-evergreen forest, woodland

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 1600 m.

Bioregions: NW (uncommon), deltaic GV, CW, SW

California counties: Los Angeles, Riverside, Ventura, Kern, Alameda, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Orange, Lake, Fresno, Contra Costa, Santa Barbara, Mariposa, Amador, Mono, San Benito, Modoc, Tehama, Siskiyou, Tuolumne, Trinity, Monterey, Humboldt, Tulare, Santa Cruz, Butte, Inyo, Shasta, Yolo, Calaveras, Sonoma, Sutter, Alpine, Placer, Napa, San Joaquin, Mendocino, Solano, Marin, Glenn, San Francisco, Nevada, Sierra, Plumas, Colusa, El Dorado, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus, Del Norte, Kings

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