Nightshade Family :

Solanaceae (so-lan-AY-see-ee)

Iconic Features

Leaves most often alternate and simple
Saucer-, trumpet-, or tube-shaped flowers with pleated petals
Flower parts in fives
Fruit often a fleshy berry

Description (Jepson)

Eudicotyledons (eudicots) – a major lineage of flowering plants including most plants traditionally described as dicots and generally characterized by
- 2 seed leaves (dicotyledon)
- Netted (reticulate) leaf venation
- Flower parts in fours and fives
- Pollen grains with 3 pores (tricolpate)
- Vascular bundles in stem arranged in a ring
- Taproot system
Annual and perennial herbs to shrubs
Leaves generally alternate (1 leaf at each junction with stem) and generally simple (not divided into leaflets)
Flowers
- Bisexual and generally radially symmetric
- Saucer-, trumpet, or tube-shaped with pleated petals
- Flower parts in sets of five
- Anthers (pollen-producing part of the stamen/male structure) are often large and tightly packed around the pistil (female flower part)
- Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
- Inflorescence (flower cluster) in many forms
Fruit is a berry (a usually multi-seeded fruit with a fleshy ovary wall) or capsule (a dry, multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity)

Notes

Approximately 3,000 species worldwide, mostly in tropical regions
- Greatest diversity is found in South and Central America
- Family includes many important agricultural crops, including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and tobacco, as well as medicinal plants and ornamentals
Many plants in this family, e.g. tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and blue witch (Solanum umbelliferum var. umbelliferum), are pollinated most efficiently by “buzz pollination”
- Flowers have specialized, tube-shaped “poricidal anthers”
  - Unlike most anthers, these anthers have firmly-attached pollen and small pores that act like the openings on a pepper shaker (Rosenthal 2008) to regulate dispersal of pollen
- Bumblebees, along with a few other native bees, can release this pollen by grasping the flower with their legs or mouthparts and vibrating their flight muscles without moving their wings
  - Watch this short video to see how buzz pollination works (KQED 2016)
  - Vibrating bees may generate forces 50x that of gravity–5x what fighter jet pilots experience (U. of Stirling 2020)
  - Although the pitch of this vibration is often described as a “middle-C,” the frequency of the vibrations is quite varied and complex, differing even within the same plant or bee species (Vallejo-Marin 2019)
- Only about 6% of the world’s flowering plant species are most efficiently pollinated by buzz-pollinating bees (Vallejo-Marin 2019), including
  - Many plants in the Heath family (Ericaceae), e.g. Manzanita species and Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii), found at Edgewood, agricultural crops like blueberries and cranberries, and ornamental shrubs like azaleas and rhododendrons (Campbell 2023)
  - Some plants in the Primrose family (Primulaceae), e.g. Henderson’s shooting stars (Primula hendersonii), found at Edgewood
- Buzz pollination is a good example of convergent evolution
  - Poricidal anthers have evolved several times in disparate plant families, as has the ability of some bee species to buzz-pollinate flowers (Vallejo-Marin 2019)
CAUTION – many species are highly toxic, containing powerful tropane alkaloids, which affect the central nervous system; some have been used traditionally for their hallucinogenic, narcotic, and anticholinergic properties
- Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) has been used as a medicine, poison, and cosmetic to dilate pupils; Belladonna is Italian for “beautiful lady” (NIH 2020)
- Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), whose roots resemble human figures, has been associated with magic and used as a medicine and poison (Encyclopædia Britannica 2018)
- Sacred Datura or Jimsonweed (Datura wrightii), native to California, has been used by Native people as a hallucinogen in spiritual practices and as a medicine (Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center 2017)
Scientific name from the included genus Solanum, from the Latin solare “to sooth” or “quiet,” in reference to the narcotic properties of some species
Common name may refer to the preference of some species for shade and/or that some flower at night
Represented by 3 species at Edgewood

Specific References

Campbell, K. 2023, April 3. Buzz pollination is just for bees. Bird Town Pennsylvania.

Encyclopædia Britannica. 2018, Nov. 2. Mandrake. Britannica.

KQED San Francisco. 2016, Jul. 9. This vibrating bumble bee unlocks a flower’s hidden treasure [Video]. Deep Look. YouTube.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. 2017. Datura wrightii. Plant Database. University of Texas at Austin.

NIH (National Institute of Health). 2020. Belladonna. National Library of Medicine. Medline Plus.

Rosenthal, S. 2008, June 11. Buzz pollination. Bay Nature.

University of Stirling. 2020, Jul. 29. Bees’ buzz is more powerful for pollination, than for defense or flight. ScienceDaily.

Vallejo-Marin, M. 2019. Buzz pollination: studying bee vibrations on flowers. New Phytologist 224: 1068-1074.

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.

Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Flora of North America. efloras.org.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Native American Ethnobotany DB.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.

Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family