Blue Solanum Shrub
Solanum hindsianum, Caltrop, Potato, Family ( Solanaceae ), Blue Solanum Shrub, Also called: Hinds' Nightshade, Mariola, Ojo De Liebre.
Herb, Perennial, native to Southern Arizona, Northern Mexico.
Solanum hindsianum is a summer-growing perennial plant, with an extensive root system. Roots can grow very deep (6 to 10 feet) and extend horizontally to produce shoots 6 feet away from the parent plant. Shoots start to emerge from established plants as the soil warms in late March to early April. Plants may begin to flower in early May. Ripe fruits may be present in June, and some seeds are viable the season they are produced. Seedlings may appear in August and September in flooded areas. Plants die back in winter and reappear from roots in the spring.
Height: Up To About 10 feet. Spreading out to about 6 foot wide.
Flowers: Violet - blue sometimes white. The flowers have 5 lobes, 5 stamens, and are 1 inch in diameter. The flowers have 5 fused petals, ¾ inch across, with bright yellow stamens. Flowers grow on stalks in clusters or singly at the end of stems or branches.
Blooming Time: March - May.
Leaves: The silvery leaves are oblong to lance-shaped with wavy edges. Poisonous. The leaves are 1 to 4 inches long by 1 inch wide, they are covered with short, silvery-white, star-shaped hairs that give the plant a dusky or silvery-gray color.
Fruit: The fruits are yellow to brownish, juicy berries, ½ inch in diameter. Seeds are flat, red - brown and 1/10 to 1/5 inch long.
Shape: Prostrate, branched, radiating to 5 feet from top of taproot, hairy, becoming nearly glabrous.
Elevation: 0 - 4500 Feet.
Habitat: On cultivated, waste and fallow land, roadsides, yards. It also can be found in perennial fields and on cultivated land. Southern Arizona, Northern Mexico.
Miscellaneous: Flowering Photos Taken March 3, 2008. Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden.
