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Title: INVASIVE PRICKLY NIGHTSHADE (SOLANUM:SOLANACEAE) IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES

Author
item Bryson, Charles

Submitted to: Southeastern Exotic Pest Plant Council
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/29/2003
Publication Date: 11/3/2003
Citation: Bryson, C.T. 2003. Invasive prickly nightshade (solanum:solanaceae) in the southern united states. Southeastern Exotic Pest Plant Council. October 23-24, 2003. Fayetteville, AR. pp.6.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Native prickly nightshades such as horsenettle (Solanum carolinese L.) and robust horsenettle (S. dimidiatum Raf.) are troublesome invasive weeds. In agricultural, urban and natural settings, these weeds compete with other plants for water and nutrients, interfere with crop growth, quality, yields, and harvest efficiency, produce allelopathic chemicals that retard growth of other plants, and cause injury to humans and other animals with their thorn-like prickles. At least 11 non-native prickly nightshades possess similar weedy traits in the southeastern United States including buffalobur (S. rostratum Dunal), fuzzy-fruit prickly nightshade (Solanum candidum L.), Jamaican nightshade (S. jamaicense Miller), nipplefruit (S. mammosum L.), red soda apple (S. capsicoides All.), silverleaf nightshade (S. elaeagnifolium Cav.), sticky nightshade (S. sisymbriifolium Lam.), tropical soda apple (S. viarum Dunal), turkeyberry (S. torvum Sw.), watermelon nightshade (S. citrullifolium A. Braun), and wetland nightshade (S. tampicense Dunal). Tropical soda apple, turkeyberry, and wetland nightshade are currently listed as Federal Noxious Weeds. Ecological range studies have demonstrated that these three species have the potential to continue moving northward in the United States, unless adequate measures are taken to prevent their spread. Non-weedy prickly nightshades in the southeastern United States include: hairy horsenettle (S. pumilum Dunal), a rare endemic of dolomite and gneiss outcrops in Alabama and Georgia; mullein nightshade (S. donianum Walp.), a species of the keys of Florida; and eggplant (S. melongea L.), a non-native frequently grown in gardens for consumption. Additional research is needed to determine the potential ecological range and reproductive potential of several of these prickly nightshade species.