#horsenettle

[weepingwidar]

Emily Stroud (American, d.o.b. unknown) - Horsenettle at Nightfall (2024)

[faguscarolinensis]

Solanum carolinense / Carolina Horse Nettle at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[usgsbiml]

Lace bug, how exquisite, the patterns and colors of the cells of this tiny bug.  The one found on Horsenettle by Ashley Bradford on the Pickering Creek Audubon Sanctuary BioBlitz.  

[lraquel]

an adorably toxic nightshade

Devil's potato is sometimes called bull nettle. However, it's almost always referred to as horsenettle. (Come on you can't blame me for leading with DEVIL'S POTATO.) It is toxic to humans and farm animals.

If the flowers and berries remind you of tomatoes' it's because our favorite red vegetablefruit is also a nightshade, along with potatoes, eggplants and bell peppers. Fear not, the levels of bothersome alkaloids in typically consumed nightshades shouldn't cause you any trouble. But don't eat the green parts of potatoes just in case.

When I first took these images, I had no idea what the plant was. I also didn't see any of it's tiny thorns. Luckily, no one got stabbed.

Solanum carlinense. St. Charles County, MO 2013.

[thestarrywisdom]

Found some solanum carolinese aka horsenettle in the field over near the mailbox (this is not my picture, i forgot my phone & ours look even more like bleached nightshade flowers, click through for source), and may have also id-ed it as something i had seeds for, as it has berries like round, yellow grape tomatoes.

fun horsenettle facts: it also has spines like the ones i hate so much in cacti, the kind that break off like fiberglass, (ugh why do i keep running into that trait in plants?) and while looking it up, i found a few anecdotal instances of it being beneficial when planted beside potatoes and the like, as some things that want to chew on solanaceae seem to prefer it to the ones we like.

[usgsbiml]

A weed that irritates everyone, thorny, leaves are shot through with holes from being fed on by many of its personal insect hosts, but...this is a native plant, related to tomatoes and T'ai Roulston's work in Shenandoah Valley shows that for some bumblebees this is the main pollen source in the summer.  So, inspect you preconceived notions and maybe let a few horse nettles (Solanum carolinense) bloom in the back of your garden.  Don't be a flower snob.  Specimen and picture by Helen Lowe Metzman, Howard County, MD.    #horsenettle #flowersnob #nativeplant #pollinatorplant #pollination #bumblebees #flowers #usgs #bees #nativebees #conservation #ugly #forlorn #ignored

[druidinvirginia]

carolina horsenettle

[bs-botany]

#horsenettle #carolinahorsenettle #flowers #whiteflowers #flowerphotography #plant #plantphotography #nature #naturephotography https://www.instagram.com/p/CXI82-QLl9y/?utm_medium=tumblr