Solanum pseudocapsicum
Poisonous plant
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
Jerusalem cherry
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
White, Yellow
Detailed description
Erect, unarmed shrub, glabrous or sometimes with few branched hairs on very young shoots; stems wiry, 40~120cm tall. Petiole to 2cm long, slender. Lamina 3~12 x 1~3cm, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, glossy above; margins usu. undulate; base narrowly attenuate; apex obtuse or acute. Flowers 1~several; peduncle 0~8mm long; pedicels 5~10mm long, erect at fruiting. Calyx 4~5mm long; lobes lanceolate to ovate, slightly accrescent. Corolla approx. 15mm diam., white, glabrous; lobes oblong-ovate to triangular. Anthers 2.5~3mm long. Berry 1.5~2cm diam., globose, glossy, orange to scarlet, long-persistent; stone cells 0. Seeds approx. 3mm diam., suborbicular to reniform or obovoid, rather asymmetric; margin thickened. (-Webb et. al., 1988)
Similar taxa
A plant with attractive glossy orange or red berries around 1-2 cm diameter (Department of Conservation 1996).
Habitat
Terrestrial.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Genus
Family
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Flowering
October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May
Year naturalised
1935
Origin
Eastern Sth America
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial. Seed is bird dispersed (Webb et al., 1988; Department of Conservation 1996). A plant that is induced by grazing (Department of Conservation 1996).
Other information
Poisonous plant
The red-orange berries are very poisonous.
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.
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.
SOLPSE