''Lycianthes rantonnetii'', the blue potato bush or Paraguay nightshade, is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the nightshade family Solanaceae,

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to South America. Growing to about tall and broad, it is a rounded

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

shrub with a somewhat lax habit. A profusion of trumpet-shaped, bright blue-purple flowers with a prominent yellow eye appear in summer, followed by red berries. It is widely cultivated and may be hardy in mild or coastal areas. Alternatively it can be grown in a container and brought under cover in winter. It requires a sheltered location in full sun. Though related to food plants like the

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

and

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

, all parts of the plant are considered toxic to humans. It has been given 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 (Nor ...

’s Award of Garden Merit. The species is named for

Barthélémy Victor Rantonnet Barthélémy Victor Rantonnet (1797-1871), gardener, horticulturalist and French nurseryman, a pioneer in the acclimatisation of plants on Côte d'Azur, and worked in the garden that Jean-Baptiste Fihle de Sainte-Anne had created in Hyères (Var). ...

, a 19th-century French horticulturalist. ''Lycianthes rantonnetii'' has previously been placed in ''

Solanum ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...

'', a huge

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

which has recently been the subject of major investigation, with species being transferred to and from several different genera. There are many rare and little-known species whose true placement has yet to be determined. Blue_potato_bush_flowers.jpg Solanum Lycianthes Rantonnetii (blue potato bush).jpg

References

Flora of Argentina Flora of Bolivia Flora of Brazil Flora of Paraguay rantonnetii Plants described in 1859 Taxa named by Élie-Abel Carrière {{Solanales-stub