Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Solanum sisymbriifolium

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Canberra, ACT.

Fruit and leaves. Photographer Dick Culbert, Argentina.

Common name

A nightshade

Family

Solanaceae

Where found

Weed of grassy areas and disturbed sites. Coastal north from near Wollongong, and the Blue Mountains. Doubtfully naturalised in the ACT.

Notes

Introduced annual or short-lived perennial herb to 1.5 m high. Prickles to 15 mm long, abundant on most parts of the plant. Fruit fleshy. Stems hairy with glandular and stellate hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the stems, 5–14 cm long, 40–100 mm wide, green to yellowish, densely hairy, deeply lobed, the lower lobes often forming leaflets. Flowers white or pale blue, 35–50 mm in diameter, star-shaped with 5 lobes, in up to 12-flowered clusters. Flowering: spring–summer. Fruit bright red, globular, 15–20 mm in diameter.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Solanum~sisymbriifolium  (accessed 7 February, 2021)