Tobacco-tree

Solanum erianthum, the potato-tree or tobacco-tree, is a soft-wooded shrub or small tree in the family Solanaceae reaching 3 to 8 metres in height, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas from the southern United States through Mexico, Central America and the West Indies to northern South America, and naturalised in many parts of the Old World tropics. The branches, petioles and inflorescences are densely covered in stellate, golden-yellow tomentum giving the plant a velvety appearance. Leaves are alternate, broadly ovate to elliptic, 10 to 30 centimetres long with entire or shallowly sinuate margins, soft and velvety beneath. The terminal corymbose cymes carry numerous small white star-shaped flowers about 1 to 2 centimetres across with five reflexed petals and a bright yellow staminal cone. Fruits are globose, fleshy yellow berries 8 to 12 millimetres in diameter, ripening from green and containing many small flattened seeds. The whole plant contains steroidal glycoalkaloids and is considered toxic.