Solanaceae, the Nightshade Family
This is an evergreen, multi-branched shrub or small tree that can grow to 16 feet high. Branchlets bear stellate (star-shaped) hairs and scattered flattened, broad-based, straight to slightly hooked prickles (absent on older woody branches).
The leaves are alternately arranged, with a distinct petiole ½ to 2 inches long. The leaf blade is 3 to 10 inches long, oblong to ovate in shape, with two or three shallow lobes on each side (occasionally unlobed) and often with an oblique (unequal) base. The upper leaf surface is green and stellate pubescent, while the lower leaf surface is a paler grayish-green or whitish-green and is more densely stellate pubescent. Scattered, flattened prickles are occasionally found along the midveins on both leaf surfaces.
The axillary, branched inflorescences bear up to 100 bright white, star-shaped flowers, ½ to 1 inch across, often with a mix of bisexual and staminate (male) flowers. The inflorescence branches, pedicels (flower stalks) and calyces bear scattered stellate hairs and short, simple gland-tipped hairs.
The globose to ovoid fruit, which are usually no more than ½ inch wide, turn yellow at maturity and are borne in erect clusters. Each fruit contains up to 200 flattened, circular to ovate or irregularly shaped seeds, which are pale to dark yellowish-brown in color and have a glossy, minutely reticulate surface.
Turkeyberry is native to the West Indies (including the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles), Mexico, Central America and northern and western South America. It is widely cultivated throughout the tropics for its edible fruit and has become naturalized pantropically.
This species has been vouchered with herbarium specimens in a scattering of counties, mainly in southern Florida, but also in Columbia County. It is most often found in open, disturbed areas (with full to partial sun exposure), such as roadsides, agricultural fields, pastures and cleared woodlands, but has also been reported from dry to mesic hammocks, floodplain marshes and swamps.
There are about 10 other prickly species of Solanum native or naturalized in Florida. Turkeyberry can be distinguished by the combination of the following characteristics:
Turkeyberry was initially introduced in many areas through cultivation for its edible fruit. It has spread on a local and regional scale by seeds, which are dispersed by birds, as well as by construction machinery and contaminated soil.
Turkeyberry was brought to Florida, presumably as a potential food crop, before 1899. It was observed to be naturalized in Florida by the early 1930s. Under optimal conditions, it may form dense thickets that out-compete native plant species. Turkeyberry was added to the federal noxious weed list in 1983. The fruit are highly esteemed in Thai cooking and are also consumed elsewhere in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Immature fruit, however, may contain toxic glycoalkaloids that can cause gastrointestinal and neurological distress. This species has been used as a nematode- and bacterial wilt-resistant rootstock for eggplant and tomato and in breeding programs to improve disease resistance in eggplant. Turkeyberry has been reported as a host of both the Oriental fruit fly and Mediterranean fruit fly.