Solanum diphyllum
Encyclopedia
Solanum diphyllum, commonly known as the twoleaf nightshade, is a species
of nightshade native
to the Americas
. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its clusters of dark green round fruits that turn a bright yellow when ripe.
Minon. It belongs to tribe
Solaneae, subfamily Solanoideae
, under the very large and diverse nightshade family (Solanaceae
). They were first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 book Species Plantarum
.
The forest nightshade (Solanum nudum) was originally illegitimately named Solanum diphyllum by the Spanish
botanists Martín Sessé y Lacasta
and José Mariano Mociño
in 1894, despite the name already being used.
Twoleaf nightshades can sometimes be confused with the Jerusalem cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum), another nightshade grown for its brightly colored berries, various synonyms of which were once classified as its cultivar
s. Perhaps, the closest resemblance of twoleaf nightshades within the genus is a rare species in western Mexico, Solanum malacothrix.
Twoleaf nightshades also known as twinleaf nightshades, twin-leaved nightshades, two-leaf nightshades, and other variations. The specific epithet 'diphyllum' means "two leaf", referring to the arrangement of their leaves. They also known by other common names like tomatillo (not to be confused with the edible Physalis philadelphica), amatillo, and 黄果龙葵 (Huang guo long kui).
s about 1 to 2 m (3.3 to 6.6 ft) tall. The stems are smooth or sometimes slightly downy with a dark brown bark
.
A distinctive feature of twoleaf nightshades is that their leaves grow in pairs from a single bud
, hence the name 'twoleaf'. Each pair is composed of a major and a minor leaf. Major leaves average at around 6 cm (2.4 in) long by 2 cm (0.78740157480315 in) wide and are elliptic to oblong in shape. Minor leaves are smaller and more rounded, they are 2 cm (0.78740157480315 in) long by 1 cm (0.393700787401575 in) wide on average. The leaves are a glossy dark green on the upper surface with a lighter green on the ventral side. The petioles are about 2 mm (0.078740157480315 in) in length.
The inflorescence
s are borne opposite the leaves. Each bears about 5 to 20 closely spaced flowers. The flower buds are white and globular when young but become more lavender in color and elongated as they mature. They bloom into tiny white flowers with a lavender tinge about 1 cm (0.393700787401575 in) across.
The fruits are spherical berries
with a slight division around the middle, especially when unripe. They are green and hard when young, around 1 cm (0.393700787401575 in) in diameter. They mature into bright yellow to orange fleshy and juicy berries about 1.2 cm (0.47244094488189 in) in diameter. They are mounted on the flower calyces on long and thin pedicel
s. Each berry contains numerous seeds.
The seed
s are flattened and kidney-shaped (resembling bell pepper seeds), each about 3 mm (0.118110236220472 in) long and 2.5 mm (0.0984251968503937 in) wide. They have pale margins and are minutely pitted.
in Mexico
, Belize
, Costa Rica
, El Salvador
, Guatemala
, Honduras
, and Nicaragua
. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in subtropical and tropical parts of the world like Southern France
, Italy
, and Taiwan
. It has escaped cultivation in some areas and become naturalized in Florida
and Texas
, United States
; Java
, Indonesia
; the Philippines
; and the West Indies.
Twoleaf nightshades are ruderal species
, colonizing newly disturbed lands. They also grow in mangrove forests.
s and bat
s, both of which help disperse the seeds. The seeds are especially hardy, able to survive being buried in an inch of soil for up to two years. 75% to 85% of the seeds will sprout.
It is unknown if the plant is poisonous to humans, but given that most members of the nightshade family bear poisonous fruits (including potato
es), it is not recommended for consumption.
Methods of controlling them in areas where they are unwanted mostly involves being familiar with their habits
and appearances and uprooting them before they bear fruits.
, section Holophylla, along with Solanum pseudocapsicum and Solanum pseudoquina.
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of nightshade native
Native plant
Native plant is a term to describe plants endemic or naturalized to a given area in geologic time.This includes plants that have developed, occur naturally, or existed for many years in an area...
to the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its clusters of dark green round fruits that turn a bright yellow when ripe.
Taxonomy
Twoleaf nightshades are classified under the subgenusSubgenus
In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea tigris Linnaeus, which...
Minon. It belongs to tribe
Tribe (biology)
In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...
Solaneae, subfamily Solanoideae
Solanoideae
Solanoideae is a subfamily of the flowering plant family Solanaceae, and is sister to the subfamily Nicotianoideae. Within Solanaceae, Solanoideae contains some of the most economically important genera and species, such as the tomato , potato , eggplant , chili peppers , mandrakes Solanoideae is a...
, under the very large and diverse nightshade family (Solanaceae
Solanaceae
Solanaceae are a family of flowering plants that include a number of important agricultural crops as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear...
). They were first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 book Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work by Carl Linnaeus. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. This means that the first names to be considered validly published in botany are those that appear...
.
The forest nightshade (Solanum nudum) was originally illegitimately named Solanum diphyllum by the Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
botanists Martín Sessé y Lacasta
Martín Sessé y Lacasta
Martín Sessé y Lacasta was a Spanish botanist, who relocated to New Spain during the 18th century to study and classify the flora of the territory.-Background:...
and José Mariano Mociño
José Mariano Mociño
José Mariano Mociño Suárez Lozano , or simply José Mariano Mociño, was a naturalist from New Spain.After having studied philosophy and medicine, he conducted early research on the ecology , geology, and anthropology of his country and other parts of North America.- Biography :He was born in...
in 1894, despite the name already being used.
Twoleaf nightshades can sometimes be confused with the Jerusalem cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum), another nightshade grown for its brightly colored berries, various synonyms of which were once classified as its cultivar
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s. Perhaps, the closest resemblance of twoleaf nightshades within the genus is a rare species in western Mexico, Solanum malacothrix.
Twoleaf nightshades also known as twinleaf nightshades, twin-leaved nightshades, two-leaf nightshades, and other variations. The specific epithet 'diphyllum' means "two leaf", referring to the arrangement of their leaves. They also known by other common names like tomatillo (not to be confused with the edible Physalis philadelphica), amatillo, and 黄果龙葵 (Huang guo long kui).
Description
Twoleaf nightshades are small shrubShrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
s about 1 to 2 m (3.3 to 6.6 ft) tall. The stems are smooth or sometimes slightly downy with a dark brown bark
Bark
Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...
.
A distinctive feature of twoleaf nightshades is that their leaves grow in pairs from a single bud
Bud
In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of the stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be specialized to develop flowers or short shoots, or may have...
, hence the name 'twoleaf'. Each pair is composed of a major and a minor leaf. Major leaves average at around 6 cm (2.4 in) long by 2 cm (0.78740157480315 in) wide and are elliptic to oblong in shape. Minor leaves are smaller and more rounded, they are 2 cm (0.78740157480315 in) long by 1 cm (0.393700787401575 in) wide on average. The leaves are a glossy dark green on the upper surface with a lighter green on the ventral side. The petioles are about 2 mm (0.078740157480315 in) in length.
The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
s are borne opposite the leaves. Each bears about 5 to 20 closely spaced flowers. The flower buds are white and globular when young but become more lavender in color and elongated as they mature. They bloom into tiny white flowers with a lavender tinge about 1 cm (0.393700787401575 in) across.
The fruits are spherical berries
Berry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
with a slight division around the middle, especially when unripe. They are green and hard when young, around 1 cm (0.393700787401575 in) in diameter. They mature into bright yellow to orange fleshy and juicy berries about 1.2 cm (0.47244094488189 in) in diameter. They are mounted on the flower calyces on long and thin pedicel
Pedicel (botany)
A pedicel is a stem that attaches single flowers to the main stem of the inflorescence. It is the branches or stalks that hold each flower in an inflorescence that contains more than one flower....
s. Each berry contains numerous seeds.
The seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s are flattened and kidney-shaped (resembling bell pepper seeds), each about 3 mm (0.118110236220472 in) long and 2.5 mm (0.0984251968503937 in) wide. They have pale margins and are minutely pitted.
Distribution and habitat
Twoleaf nightshades are native to Northern and Central AmericaAmericas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, and Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in subtropical and tropical parts of the world like Southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. It has escaped cultivation in some areas and become naturalized in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
; the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
; and the West Indies.
Twoleaf nightshades are ruderal species
Ruderal species
A ruderal species is a plant species that is first to colonize disturbed lands. The disturbance may be natural , or due to human influence – constructional , or agricultural .Ruderal species typically dominate the disturbed area...
, colonizing newly disturbed lands. They also grow in mangrove forests.
Ecology and cultivation
Twoleaf nightshades are grown for their attractive clusters of green and yellow berries. The plants are spread very easily. Fruits are eaten by birdBird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s and bat
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s, both of which help disperse the seeds. The seeds are especially hardy, able to survive being buried in an inch of soil for up to two years. 75% to 85% of the seeds will sprout.
It is unknown if the plant is poisonous to humans, but given that most members of the nightshade family bear poisonous fruits (including potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es), it is not recommended for consumption.
Methods of controlling them in areas where they are unwanted mostly involves being familiar with their habits
Habit (biology)
Habit, when used in the context of biology, refers to the instinctive actions of animals and the natural tendencies of plants.In zoology, this term most often refers to specific behavioral characteristics, even when directly related to physiology...
and appearances and uprooting them before they bear fruits.
Phylogeny
Twoleaf nightshades belong to the Geminata cladeClade
A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...
, section Holophylla, along with Solanum pseudocapsicum and Solanum pseudoquina.