Could any one identify this plant for me. It is growing in my backyard, we started them from seeds we thought were black eyed susans. Also is it a safe plant? are the berries poisonous? thanks for any help.
The berries look like Nightshade (Solanum). Couldn't tell you what species though....the further south you get, the # species increases. Berries are generally not edible & their toxicity varies. Simon
More Info, The seeds were taken from the black center of a Black Eyed Susan flower. The plant had little white blooms, about a half a inch, before the berries appeared. It is about 3 ft. tall and grew real fast. It is kinda wierd to take seeds from a black eyed susan plant and get something different.
The seeds that germinated were definitely not the ones you planted. Nightshade can sprout up in unlikely spots because birds are a primary distributor. The leaves look a bit like an eggplant (Solanum melongena) but the fruit is obviously not. It is a Solanum sp. though. Simon
With white flowers and black berries, possibly Solanum americanum. Here is the list of Solanum that the USDA plant page has for Nevada. The indented names are synonyms. If not the S. americanum then perhaps further search of the names in the list is in order. Click on the blue entries to get individual plant descriptions and maybe a photo or two. If no photo at USDA, use the image search of google on the scientific name. Hope this helps. Harry
As far as toxicity goes, if it is S. americanum, one page suggested that the mature seeds could be poisonous. The caveat was that it was sufficiently like other species of the genus Solanum (Nightshade) that were truly poisonous that the safest way to go was to eradicate the plant where it might come in contact with children or pets where parts of the plant might be ingested. Harry
