''Solanum laxum'', commonly known as potato vine, potato climber or jasmine nightshade, is an evergreen vine in the family

Solanaceae The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and orn ...

. It is native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

and commonly grown as an ornamental garden plant.

Description

The jasmine-flowered nightshade is a woody climber that forms branches 2 to 8 m long and has a base that can reach more than 10 centimeters in diameter. Fast-growing, it climbs by winding the

leaf stalk In botany, the petiole () is the stalk that attaches the leaf blade to the stem, and is able to twist the leaf to face the sun. This gives a characteristic foliage arrangement to the plant. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole in so ...

s around supports. The

shoot In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the spri ...

axes are strongly angled zigzag, hairless or in the youth stage with simple, white, single-row

trichome Trichomes (); ) are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a pla ...

s less than 0.5 millimeters in length. New growth is hairless or finely to sparsely hairy. The bark of older branches is green or reddish green or, if the plant grows in direct sunlight, often purple-green. The ovate or ovate-lanceolate leaves are 30 to 50 mm long and 15 to 25 mm wide. The

sympodial Sympodial growth is a bifurcating branching pattern where one branch develops more strongly than the other, resulting in the stronger branches forming the primary shoot and the weaker branches appearing laterally. A sympodium, also referred to a ...

units contain many leaves. These are usually simple, only very rarely divided with one to four irregular lobes and pinnately split.

Inflorescences

The white or pale blue flowers appear in groups of around 20 in branched inflorescences, produced in profusion in the spring but also sporadically at other times of the year. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s are initially terminal, later also laterally. They are hairless, reach lengths of 5 centimeters and more, are usually divided two or three times, but can also be divided significantly more often and contain up to 50 flowers. All flowers are fully developed and five-fold. The inflorescence stalk becomes 0.5 to 4 centimeters long, but its length is very variable depending on the size of the inflorescence and the age. These are followed by dark blue or black berries that are around 8 mm in diameter.

Distribution

The natural distribution area of the species extends from the southeastern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian states of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

and

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

to the mouth of the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, as well as to

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. The species is often naturalized as a cultural refugee in both temperate and subtropical areas. The locations range from just above sea level to altitudes over 500 meters. In the natural range, the species is in the Atlantic rainforest, in

Araucaria ''Araucaria'' (; original pronunciation: .ɾawˈka. ɾja is a genus of evergreen Conifer, coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. There are 20 extant taxon, extant species in New Caledonia (where 14 species are endemism, ende ...

forests, and open forest edges. At suitable locations, the naturalized representatives are also resistant to light frosts. The species is naturalised in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in Australia.

Cultivation

''Solanum laxum'' is cultivated as an ornamental. The white-flowered

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

'Album' has received the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

. It is hardy down to , but requires a sheltered position in full sun. The plant is poisonous, causing abdominal pain if ingested. Therefore gloves should be worn when handling any part of the plant.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2032362 laxum Flora of South America Flora of Brazil Flora of Argentina Flora of Paraguay Flora of Uruguay Flora naturalised in Australia Plants described in 1824