Yet another plant ID, please

In message , Patty Winter writes

A Solanum. I wouldn't dare attempt to identify American species.

This thing came up in a railing planter recently. It's about a foot high now. I decided to leave it there until I could determine whether it's something I want to toss out or transplant and keep.

Thanks!

Patty

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Hard to say (for me it'd be easier seeing the berries as well as flowers) but a rough guess would be Solanum nigrum. In any case, it's something I'd not want in any of _my_ planters.

Thank you, Stewart and Nelly!

Nelly, the berries on this one aren't ripe yet, but I think I had another one of these in another planter a while back, and its flowers were black. So it may be a solanum negrum. In any event, given the leaf and flower photos I've found, I'm sure you're both correct that it's something in the solanum family. (But not a tomato. I do know how to recognize those. :-))

Patty

The Solanum genus is very large and diverse, but helpfully divided into a number of sections. S nigrum is in the section confusingly called the Solanum section. This wiki article on S americanum gives you some clues on distinguishing some of the similar species in that section. 'Solanum americanum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'

a somewhat--but not outstandingly decorative small shrub in a container. I might move it to its own pot and see whether it interests me when it gets bigger.

A lot of people in my area have the purple or white solanums (solumna?) that are colloquially known as "potato trees," but I don't know where this cousin came from...

Patty

I would guess the native Solanum douglasii The leaves are wrong for S. nigrum

It can get 3 to 6 feet high and as wide (but probably not in that planter

It can be pretty as part of a native garden