Withania somnifera
Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record (Click here to see images of this plant from Kyffhäuser)
Image 1
Habit
20 Dec 2015
Image 2
Leaves + immature fruit
20 Dec 2015
Image 3
Leaves and fruit
02 Apr 2015
| Family: | Solanaceae |
| Full name: | Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Bitterappeliefie, Geneesblaarbossie, Geneesblaar |
| English common name(s): | Deadly nightshade, Winter cherry, Poisonous gooseberry, Poison gooseberry |
| Synonym(s): | Physalis somnifera L. Physaloides somnifera (L.) Moench Withania microphysalis Suess. Withania mucronata Chiov. - lapsu cal. pro macrocalyx-- name excluded Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal var. macrocalyx Chiov. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Erect subshrub or woody based perennial to 1.5 m. Stems tomentose. Leaves: lamina 4-10 x 3-7 cm, ovate, stellate-tomentose, glabrescent; base cuneate; margin entire. Flowers 4-16 in a cluster. Corolla greenish, tomentose externally. Fruit a berry, 8-10 mm in diameter, spherical, glossy, scarlet, enclosed within an enlarged accrescent calyx, c. 2 cm in fruit. (from Flora of Zimbabwe website) Shrub, subshrub or woody-based herb, up to 2 m tall; stems greyish tomentose. Leaf-blades ovate to obovate or oblong, 3–10 x 1.5–7 cm, acute to obtuse at the apex, cuneate at the base, with entire margins or almost so, subglabrous above, densely tomentose beneath; petiole 0.5–2 cm long. Flowers mostly in 3–6-flowered axillary clusters; pedicels up to 5 mm long, tomentose. Calyx 4–5 mm long in flower, enlarging to 10–28 mm in fruit, tomentose outside; lobes narrowly triangular, acute, shorter than to about as long as the tube. Corolla greenish, 5–7 mm long, thinly tomentose outside; lobes triangular, shorter than the tube. Stamens with filaments c. 2–3 mm long; anthers c. 1 mm long. Ovary with inconspicuous disk at the base; style 1.5–2.5 mm long. Berry globose, 5–8 mm in diam., shiny, red, surrounded by and much exceeded by the enlarged ovoid-acuminate calyx. Seeds c. 2 mm in diam., reticulate. (from JSTOR Global Plants website) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
