Green Nightshade

green nightshade
Green Nightshade Solanum physalifolium   Photo: Bob Ellis

It's mid September and Green Nightshade, Solanum physalifolium, seems to be turning up a little more than usual this year but it may just be down to my rather random wanderings. These plants were in a sugar beet field in Felthorpe. It was abundant in a beet field in Ludham a few days ago and in Corpusty it was beside recently harvested potatoes. I don't know if the little dark marks towards the centre of the flowers are always present, but here they are quite distinctive. I also think the dull green, hairy and shallowly, often somewhat sinuously lobed leaves make it stand out from Black Nightshade, Solanum nigrum.

green nightshade
Green Nightshade Solanum physalifolium   Photo: Bob Ellis

 

Bob Ellis