• Family : SOLANACEAE
  (Nightshade Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : BAINGAN FAMILY (बैंगन फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : SOLANACEAE
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Solanum seaforthianum Andrews
• Common name : The Potato Creeper, Brazilian Nightshade, Italian Jasmine, St. Vincent Lilac
• Vernacular name : Thoongumasu (Malayalam)
• Habit : Climbing shrub
• Habitat : Degraded evergreen and moist deciduous forests
• Comments / notes : Commonly seen as a hedge plant around estates and also grown in gardens.
• Flower, Fruit : July-February
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Kadapa district, Kurnool district, Chittoor district, Prakasam district
  • Karnataka : Ballari district
  • Kerala : Wayanad district, Palakkad district, Idukki district, Thiruvananthapuram district
  • Tamil Nadu : Madurai district, Namakkal district, Salem district, Tiruchirapalli district, Vellore district, Villipuram district, Dindigul district, Sivaganga district
• Native : Brazil
• World Distribution : Widely naturalised
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2011 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 4; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1995- Flora of Orissa Vol. 2; N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Solanum seaforthianum. Downloaded on 21 November 2024.

Botanical Description

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