|
 An
Illustrated Guide to
Common Weeds
of New Zealand
Solanum
linnaeanum
apple
of Sodom
Family
SOLANACEAE
Reproduced from
Common
Weeds of New Zealand
by Bruce Roy, Ian Popay, Paul Champion, Trevor James & Anis
Rahman
ISBN 0 473 09760 5
by kind permission of the
New
Zealand Plant Protection Society
Publication or other use of images or descriptive
text on these pages is unauthorised unless written permission is
obtained from the authors and publisher. Appropriate acknowledgement
of the publication Common Weeds of New Zealand must always
be given.
Available from Manaaki-Whenua
Press and Touchwood
Books
Short, spreading,
strongly spiny, woody perennial shrub up to 1 m or more tall. Mauve
or violet flowers 3 cm across, followed by green and white mottled
berries, ripening to yellow. Leaves lobed, downy underneath. The
most common prickly species of Solanum in NZ.
- Flowers Mauve
or violet, 25-35 mm in diameter, on hairy stalks up to 10 mm long.
Anthers 4-6 mm long. Flowers in few-flowered clusters. Flowers
Sep-May.
- Fruit Mottled
green and white berries up to 3 cm in diameter. Yellow when mature.
Poisonous.
- Leaves Egg-shaped
to oblong, up to 9 cm long by 7 cm wide, dark green on the upper
surface, downy underneath. Deeply and irregularly divided into
lobes with shallowly-waved margins.
- Stems Branched,
with strong yellow spines up to 1 cm long and scattered, star-shaped
hairs.
- Roots Non-suckering.
Habitat
Frost-free coastal
sands, poor pasture and scrub margins.
Distribution
NI only, common on
coastal and inland lowland North Auckland and Auckland. Less common
south to Taranaki and Hawkes Bay. Originally from north Africa.
Comments
Generally regarded
as a poisonous plant, but not often
eaten by stock.
Related
species
 White-edged
nightshade (Solanum marginatum) is a taller spiny shrub,
up to 5 m tall, distinguished by its white felted branches, leaves
with white undersides, and upper sides with a frosted margin.
Flowers white, sometimes with purple veins. Found in scrub, forest
margins, poor pasture, roadsides, waste places. Widespread and
sometimes common in NI, locally common in Nelson and occasional
in coastal areas as far south as Banks peninsula. Listed on the
National Pest Plant Accord (see
Introduction for details).
Derivation
of botanical name
Solanum Lat.
name of a plant; linnaeanum after Carl von Linné
(Linnaeus), 18th cent. Swedish botanist.
Web-notes:
Weed Links
On this site
Reproduced from Common Weeds
of New Zealand:
External Links
 Weedbusters
New Zealand
- Weedbusters is a weeds awareness and education programme that aims to
protect New Zealand's environment from the increasing weed problem.
 New
Zealand Plant Conservation Network Weeds Fact Sheets
- Search for 1500 weed fact sheets mainly derived from the Department of
Conservation's BIOWEB weeds database.
 New
Zealand Plant Protection Society
- Their main objective: "To pool and exchange information on the biology
of weeds, invertebrate and vertebrate pests, pathogens and beneficial organisms
and methods for modifying their effects."
-
 New
Zealand Landcare Trust
- Plant Pest information including Pictures, Distribution Maps, References,
Environmental Effects and Control.
-
- New
Zealand Aquatic Weeds
- Hosted by the weed management group of NIWA (National Institute of Water
and Atmospheric Research).
-
- Weed
Control Manual for the Bay of Plenty
- Weeds information compiled by Environment Bay of Plenty.
-
 Massey
University Weeds Database- A site providing information about New Zealand weeds and weed control.
It has a series of pages showing pictures of New Zealand weeds, notes on
identification and control. It also provides information on a university
paper entitled Controlling Weeds.
-
- Canterbury
Weed Guide
- A weed identification guide prepared by the Christchurch City Council.
-
- Australian
Plants as Weeds
- Part of the Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants website.
- Department
of Agriculture Western Australia
- Collection of weed resources from the Department of Agriculture, Government
of Western Australia
- Weed
Society of Victoria
- Promoting wider awareness and interest in weeds and their management.
Includes a useful page of links
to other weed societies.
-
- Tamar
Valley Weeds Strategy
- Listing of common and botanical names, images, and information including
control methods for weeds found in Tasmania, and also on the Australian
mainland.
-
-
- New
Jersey Weed Gallery, USA
- Listing of common and botanical names and images, plus a small amount
of information for weeds that cause problems in the USA.
- Invasive
and Exotic Species of North America
- Images and other information from the University of Georgia.
- University
of California
- Weed Photo Gallery, with common and botanical names.
-
- World
of Weeds
- Weed-related resources including weed science, practical tools, gardening
tips about controlling weeds, and environmental news updates.
-
- Invasive
Species Specialist Group
- "The ISSG aims to reduce threats to natural ecosystems and the native
species they contain by increasing awareness of invasive alien species,
and of ways to prevent, control or eradicate them."
-
- Invasive
Woody Plants
- Collection of research and associated literature for invasive woody plants
in the tropics and the temperate zone.
-
- WeedScience.com
- Site that includes a comprehensive collection of weed images from around
the world.
-
-
 Books
on Weeds from FetchBook.Info
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