Got excited that I had a volunteer tomato but it doesn’t smell like tomato and it’s seemingly showed up out of nowhere – in one of my raised beds that had tomatoes in it last year (cauliflower and peas this year). Oregon, Zone 8b (Willamette Valley). Should I rip it out?
by iHeartFerretz
12 Comments
That’s nightshade, correct. Not a tomato
Definitely nightshade. Rip it out but wear gloves and long sleeves.
Looks like nightshade.
if it is a volunteer tomato it would have hairs at the base of the plant and also more pointy narrow leaves with almost a fuzz until mature, plus the fruit does not grow in even clusters on a tomato plant. tomatoes also have a slightly irregular stem when mature and like to lean or vine on something.
wear gloves and do not burn it. let fungi decay it.
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Black nightshade, Solanum nigrum. It’s in the same genus as tomatoes. No reason to remove it if you liked the plant. It’s safe to grow (no more dangerous than growing eggplants or groundcherries), safe to touch, won’t cross with your crop nightshades, and is a beneficial plant to have around for birds.
nightshade
If the blossoms are white or purple, it’s nightshade. They become small berries. Don’t eat them. If the blossoms are yellow, and they turn into tomatoes, you can eat them.
It is a nightshade but white flowers purple fruit I encourage (the *most* polite weed literally ever: I know as “sunberry”) the purple flower vines with red fruit I pull out and “kill pile” every chance I can possibly get because that’s as I see it the “evil” nightshade
NOTE: I am an idiot: I handle both especially the evil commonly withought gloves (but seriously: somanum x burbankii is worth researching!)
It’s black nightshade, in the Solanum nigrum complex, please stop spreading misinformation about it. It’s harmless to people, and edible when the berries ripen to black. Not all nightshades are horrendously toxic and you help no one by acting like they are. This fear mongering is pointless and harmful. Do some actual research before spouting off false information.
Absolutely cannot hurt you from contact with skin, you people are alarmist who act like you’ve never seen a plant.
That is a night shade. Pull it before it goes to seed or you will have a bunch more next year