Solanum mauritianum is a small tree or shrub native to South America, including Northern Argentina, Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Its common names include earleaf nightshade (or "ear-leaved nightshade"), woolly nightshade, flannel weed, bugweed, tobacco weed, tobacco bush, wild tobacco and kerosene plant.
Description
Flowers
Yellow fruits
The woolly nightshade is a multi-branched shrub or small tree between 2 and 4 meters high (but can grow up to 10 m (33 ft) tall in the right conditions). The plant has a strong odor and a life span of up to thirty years.
The simple, entire, ovate-elliptical large leaves are up to 40 centimeters long, 30 centimeters wide and are grey-green in color. The tip of the leaf is pointed, the base is wedge-shaped. They sit on 3 to 9 centimeters long petioles. They are dense, tomentose with hairy yellowish, long-stemmed, star-shaped trichomes.
The slightly scented inflorescences are cymes of purple single flowers with a yellow center and sit on 15 centimeter long inflorescence axes. The sepals are fused into a 2 to 3 millimeter long calyx tube with 1 to 2 millimeter long lobes. The crown is star-shaped and measures between 1.5 and 2.5 centimeters. The five stamens sit on 1 millimeter long filaments. The anthers are egg-shaped and 2 to 3.5 millimeters long. The plant can flower year round but fruiting occurs in late spring to early summer.
After flowering, spherical yellow berries up to 2 cm in size with numerous, flattened seeds 1.5 to 2 millimeters long form.
Hanno Schäfer: Flora of the Azores . Margraf Verlag, Weikersheim, ISBN 3-8236-1368-5 , p. 166 (English).
Inflorescence
The slightly scented inflorescences are cymes of purple single flowers with a yellow center and sit on 15 centimeter long inflorescence axes. The sepals are fused into a 2 to 3 millimeter long calyx tube with 1 to 2 millimeter long lobes. The crown is star-shaped and measures between 1.5 and 2.5 centimeters. The five stamens sit on 1...
