Solanum marginatum
NPPA pest plant
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
white-edged nightshade
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
Flower colours
Violet/Purple, White
Detailed description
A much branched perennial shrub or small tree, to 5m tall. Prickly (to 1.5 cm long) stems and leaves. Leaves 25 x 18 cm, borne on c. 4cm long stalks; broadly ovate. Usually dark green above except for white hairy margins; undersides white felted. Midrib and veins prickly on veins above. Inconspicuous white (sometimes with mauve veins) flowers, 2.5 - 3.5 cm diam.; round hard yellow, tomato-like fruit.
Similar taxa
Hairy fruits, large conspicuous auricles on the vegetative shoots, the large entire woolly leaves and by being the only nightshade in New Zealand which forms a small tree. (Webb et al 1988).
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Ecology
Flowering
November, December, January, February, March
Year naturalised
1883
Origin
N.E. Africa
Life cycle and dispersal
Fruit moving in water. cannot discount dispersal by birds or other animals (DoC, 1998).
Other information
Etymology
solanum: Derivation uncertain - possibly from the Latin word sol, meaning “sun,” referring to its status as a plant of the sun. Another possibility is that the root was solare, meaning “to soothe,” or solamen, meaning “a comfort,” which would refer to the soothing effects of the plant upon ingestion.
marginatum: From the Latin marginatus ‘edge, margin’, where one colour is surrounded by a very narrow rim of another
National Pest Plant Accord species
This plant is listed in the 2020 National Pest Plant Accord. The National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) is an agreement to prevent the sale and/or distribution of specified pest plants where either formal or casual horticultural trade is the most significant way of spreading the plant in New Zealand. For up to date information and an electronic copy of the 2020 Pest Plant Accord manual (including plant information and images) visit the MPI website.
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
SOLMAR