Twoleaf nightshade

Description

Solanum diphyllum, commonly known as the twoleaf nightshade, is a species of nightshade native to the Americas. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its clusters of dark green round fruits that turn a bright yellow when ripe. Twoleaf nightshades are small shrubs about 1 to 2 m (3.3 to 6.6 ft) tall. The stems are smooth or sometimes slightly downy with a dark brown bark. A distinctive feature of twoleaf nightshades is that their leaves grow in pairs from a single bud, hence the name 'twoleaf'. Each pair is composed of a major and a minor leaf. Major leaves average at around 6 cm (2.4 in) long by 2 cm (0.79 in) wide and are elliptic to oblong in shape. Minor leaves are smaller and more rounded, they are 2 cm (0.79 in) long by 1 cm (0.39 in) wide on average. The leaves are a glossy dark green on the upper surface with a lighter green on the ventral side. The petioles are about 2 mm (0.079 in) in length. The inflorescences are borne opposite the leaves. Each bears about 5 to 20 closely spaced flowers. The flower buds are white and globular when young but become more lavender in color and elongated as they mature. They bloom into tiny white flowers with a lavender tinge about 1 cm (0.39 in) across. The fruits are spherical berries with a slight division around the middle, especially when unripe. They are green and hard when young, around 1 cm (0.39 in) in diameter. They mature into bright yellow to orange fleshy and juicy berries about 1.2 cm (0.47 in) in diameter. They are mounted on the flower calyces on long and thin pedicels. Each berry contains numerous seeds. The seeds are flattened and kidney-shaped (resembling bell pepper seeds), each about 3 mm (0.12 in) long and 2.5 mm (0.098 in) wide. They have pale margins and are minutely pitted. Twoleaf nightshades are native to Northern and Central America in Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in subtropical and tropical parts of the world like Southern France, Italy, and Taiwan. It has escaped cultivation in some areas and become naturalized in Florida and Texas, United States; Java, Indonesia; the Philippines; and the West Indies. Twoleaf nightshades are ruderal species, colonizing newly disturbed lands. They also grow in mangrove forests.