Solanum is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae, comprising around 1,500 species. It also contains the so-called horse nettles (unrelated to the genus of true nettles, Urtica), as well as numerous plants cultivated for their ornamental flowers and fruit.
The generic name was first used by Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) for a plant also known as strychnos, most likely S.nigrum. Its derivation is uncertain, possibly stemming from the Latin word sol, meaning "sun", referring to its status as a plant of the sun.[3]
Species having the common name "nightshade"
The species most commonly called nightshade in North America and Britain is Solanum dulcamara, also called bittersweet or woody nightshade (so-called because it is a scandentshrub). Its foliage and egg-shaped red berries are poisonous, the active principle being solanine, which can cause convulsions and death if taken in large doses. Black nightshades (many species in the Solanum nigrum complex, Solanum sect. Solanum) have varying levels of toxins and are considered too toxic to eat by many people in North America and Europe, but young stems and leaves or fully ripened fruit of various species are cooked and eaten by native people in North America, Africa, and Asia. Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) belongs, like Solanum, to subfamily Solanoideae of the nightshade family, but, unlike that genus, is a member of tribeHyoscyameae (Solanum belongs to tribe Solaneae).[4] The chemistry of Atropa species is very different from that of Solanum species and features the very toxic tropane alkaloids, the best-known of which is atropine.[5]
The genus was established by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.[6] Its subdivision has always been problematic, but slowly some sort of consensus is being achieved.[citation needed]
The following list is a provisional lineup of the genus' traditional subdivisions, together with some notable species.[6] Many of the subgenera and sections might not be valid; they are used here provisionally as the phylogeny of this genus is not fully resolved yet and many species have not been reevaluated.[citation needed]
Cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data suggest that the present subdivisions and rankings are largely invalid. Far more subgenera would seem to warrant recognition, with Leptostemonum being the only one that can at present be clearly subdivided into sections. Notably, it includes as a major lineage several members of the traditional sections Cyphomandropsis and the old genus Cyphomandra.[1]
Species in this list may have been placed into a taxonomic section or subgenus by some work not cited here. Please move the species accordingly if that happens.
Solanum etuberosum– representative member of a clade that gave rise to the potatoes (petota clade) by hybridization with a member of the tomato clade[13]
Lycianthes mociniana (as S. uniflorumDunal in Poir. and S. uniflorumSessé & Moc.)
Lycianthes rantonnetii (as S. rantonnetii, S. urbanum var. ovatifolium and var. typicum)
Undetermined species of Lycianthes have been referred to under names such as S. chrysophyllum, S. ciliatumBlume ex Miq., S. corniculatumHiern, S. lanuginosum, S. retrofractum var. acuminatum, S. violaceumBlume, S. violifolium f. typicum, S. virgatum notst β albiflorum, S. uniflorumLag. or S. uniflorum var. berterianum.
Phylogeny
The following phylogeny of Solanaceae is from Zhang et al. (2025) figure 1B. It is based on a consensus of 500 trees randomly sampled from 1-Mb genomic windows with 200-kb step size.[13]
The non-italicized names inside of Solanum refer to the major clade names within Solanum. These names usually include the similarly-named section but do not have taxonomic standing.[13]
Most parts of the plants,[14] especially the green parts and unripe fruit, are poisonous to humans (although not necessarily to other animals), with some species even being deadly.
Uses
Many species in the genus bear some edible parts, such as fruits, leaves, or tubers. Three crops in particular have been bred and harvested for consumption by humans for centuries, and are now cultivated on a global scale:
Tomato varieties are sometimes bred from both S.lycopersicum and wild tomato species such as S.pimpinellifolium, S.peruvianum, S.cheesmanii, S.galapagense, S.chilense, etc. (such varieties include—among others—Bicentennial, Dwarf Italian, Epoch, Golden Sphere, Hawaii, Ida Red, Indigo Rose,[15] Kauai, Lanai, Marion, Maui, Molokai, Niihau, Oahu, Owyhee, Parma, Payette, Red Lode, Super Star, Surecrop, Tuckers Forcing, V 121, Vantage, Vetomold, and Waltham.)[16]
Less important but cultured relatives used in small amounts include S.stenotomum, S.phureja, S.goniocalyx, S.ajanhuiri, S.chaucha, S.juzepczukii, S.curtilobum.
Eggplant (also known as brinjal or aubergine), S.melongena
↑ Armando T. Hunziker 2001: The Genera of Solanaceae. A.R.G. Gantner Verlag, Ruggell, Liechtenstein. ISBN3-904144-77-4.
↑ Frohne, Dietrich and Pfänder, Hans Jürgen. 1984 A Colour Atlas of Poisonous Plants: A Handbook for Pharmacists, Doctors, Toxicologists, and Biologists transl. from 2nd German ed. by Norman Grainger Bisset, London: Wolfe Atlases. Wolfe Publishing.
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