Solanum nelsonii commonly known as Nelson's Horsenettle, is an annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 to perennial plant

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 in the Solanaceae

Solanaceae

Solanaceae are a family of flowering plants that include a number of important agricultural crops as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear...

 family, part of the Solanum

Solanum

Solanum, the nightshades, horsenettles and relatives, is a large and diverse genus of annual and perennial plants. They grow as forbs, vines, subshrubs, shrubs, and small trees, and often have attractive fruit and flowers. Many formerly independent genera like Lycopersicon or Cyphomandra are...

or nightshade genus. This poison

Poison

In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....

ous plant is endemic to the Pacific Islands

Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....

. It grows low to the ground in sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

y soil

Soil

Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...

.

Nelson's Horsenettle was first described by Michel Félix Dunal

Michel Félix Dunal

Michel Felix Dunal was a French botanist. He was professor of botany in Montpellier, France. He held the chair of Medical Natural History from 1816 to 1819...

. The scientific name Solanum nelsonii has also – invalidly – been given to two other species of nightshade:

• S. nelsonii of Zipp. based on Span. is the S. violaceum described by Ortega.
• S. nelsonii of Correll is S. oxycarpum.

Several varieties of Nelson's Horsenettle have been described, but they are not usually considered valid anymore:

• Solanum nelsonii var. acuminatum F.Br. in Christophersen & Caum

Not to be confused with S. acuminatum as described by Ruiz & Pavón Jiménez

José Antonio Pavón Jiménez

José Antonio Pavón Jiménez or José Antonio Pavón was a Spanish botanist known for researching the flora of Peru and Chile during an expedition under Carlos III from 1777 to 1788...

.

• Solanum nelsonii var. caumii F.Br. In Christophersen & Caum
• Solanum nelsonii var. intermedium F.Br. in Christophersen & Caum

Not to be confused with S. intermedium as described by Otto Sendtner

Otto Sendtner

Otto Sendtner was a German botanist and phytogeographer born in Munich.He received his education at the University of Munich, where he was a student of Karl Friedrich Schimper...

 in C.F.P. von Martius

Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius

Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius was a German botanist and explorer.Martius was born at Erlangen, where he graduated M.D. in 1814, publishing as his thesis a critical catalogue of plants in the botanic garden of the university...

.

• Solanum nelsonii var. thomasiifolium Seem.

Not to be confused with S. thomasiifolium.

• Solanum nelsonii var. typicum F.Br. in Christophersen & Caum
• Solanum nelsonii var. vadosum H.St.John

Further reading

• http://www.hear.org/starr/hiplants/images/600max/html/starr_030523_0022_solanum_nelsonii.htm
• http://plants.usda.gov/classification/output_report.cgi?3%7CS%7CSOLAN%7Cu%7C140%7C+63
• Badami S, Prakash O, Dongre SH, Suresh B. In vitro antioxidant properties of Solanum pseudocapsicum leaf extracts. Indian J Pharmacol 2005;37: 251-252