Family: Solanaceae (Potato Family / Night shade family)

Solanaceae (Potato/Nightshade family) has about 88 genera and 2,650 species (Solanum alone contributes ~1,500 species), worldwide but most abundant in South America. Habit: mostly annual herbs, shrubs, small trees (Solanum violaceum), lianas with prickles (Solanum trilobatum), many with stellate trichomes. Stem: herbaceous or woody, sometimes modified into tubers (Solanum tuberosum), often with bicollateral vascular bundles. Leaf: alternate, simple (rarely pinnately compound, e.g. Solanum tuberosum), exstipulate, reticulate venation. Inflorescence: axillary/terminal cyme, an extra-axillary scorpioid cyme (rhipidium, e.g. Solanum nigrum), or solitary (Datura, Nicotiana). Flower: pedicellate, bisexual, actinomorphic (weakly zygomorphic in some due to oblique ovary), pentamerous, hypogynous. Calyx: 5 sepals (rarely 4/6), often accrescent (enlarging to envelop the fruit, as in Physalis, Withania). Corolla: 5 sympetalous petals - rotate, tubular (Solanum), bell-shaped (Atropa) or infundibuliform (Petunia). Androecium: 5 epipetalous stamens, anthers dehiscing longitudinally or poricidally (by apical pores, e.g. Solanum). Gynoecium: bicarpellary, syncarpous, ovary obliquely placed, superior, bilocular but appearing tetralocular from a false septum, axile placentation. Fruit: a berry (Lycopersicon, Capsicum) or a capsule (Datura, Petunia). …