Solanum oligacanthum
Solanum oligacanthum is a species of herbaceous perennial herb or subshrub which is spread throughout central east Australia. This species is often found in seasonally flooded creek channels, flats and lagoons, and commonly referred to as desert nightshade.
Description
Solanum oligacanthum is an erect, colonial, herbacious perennial species. It grows up to in heaight. This species is of pale grey-green colour, resulting from densely pubescent stellate hairs up to long.Its leaves are broadly ovate, wide and long, with the apex obtuse and rounded, and the base obtuse to cordate.
The corollas is purple and rotate, containing the yellow anthers arranged in the centre forming a cone-like structure.
Its seeds are long, black or dark-brownish in colour.
Ecology
Solanum oligacanthum grows in arid shrub lands within Australia. New growth occurs in spring, and most top growth dies down over winter leaving dead stubble.This species, like most Solanum, pollinates through a process known as buzz pollination.
It is classified as a weed within some parts of South Australia.