Prairie-berry

Solanum elaeagnifolium, the silverleaf nightshade or prairie-berry, is a perennial herb in the family Solanaceae native to the southwestern United States, Mexico, and adjacent South America (Argentina), and widely naturalized as an aggressive weed in Mediterranean Europe, North Africa, southern Africa, India, and Australia. The plant arises from a deep persistent creeping root system and produces erect to ascending stems 30-100 cm tall covered, like the rest of the plant, in a dense stellate (star-shaped) silvery-white indumentum that gives the foliage its characteristic grey-silver appearance. Slender straight yellow prickles are scattered along the stems, leaf midribs, and petioles. The leaves are alternate, oblong-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 4-15 cm long, with shallowly undulate to sinuate margins, a short petiole, and silvery hairs on both surfaces. The inflorescence is a small cyme of 1-7 nodding showy flowers, each 2-3 cm across, with a five-lobed star-shaped pale violet to purple corolla and a prominent central cone of bright yellow connate anthers. The fruit is a globose berry 1-1.5 cm across that ripens from green and white-mottled through yellow to glossy orange and finally dark brown-purple, containing many flat disc-shaped seeds.