Solanum pumilum Dunal

Dwarf Horse Nettle; Hairy Carolina Horse Nettle

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Dwarf Horse Nettle is a native herbaceous perennial in the Nightshade family (Solanaceae). It is known only from Alabama and historically (1834-1837) Georgia. Dwarf Horse Nettle occurs in Bibb, Chilton, and Coosa counties in Alabama. It grows in thin soils on amphibolite outcrops and Ketona Glades. It is a perennial from short, creeping rhizomes. The stems are erect, weakly branched, green or reddish purple in color, pubescent, but not armed with prickles. The stems are 1-8 inches in height. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, ovate to elliptic in outline, rounded to obtuse at the apex, with entire or shallowly sinuate margins. The leaves are pubescent on both surfaces, and the midvein on the lower surface of the leaf is sometimes armed with a few weak prickles (but not the secondary veins). Flowers are produced in terminal racemes. The corolla is star-shaped with 5 pure white petals united at their base, and 5 tubular yellow stamens. Flowers are sweetly fragrant. The fruit is a yellow berry. Dwarf Horse Nettle is listed as an S1 species in Alabama (typically 5 or fewer occurrences, very few remaining individuals, or some factor of its biology making it especially vulnerable in the state), and globally as a G1 species (critically imperiled globally because of extreme rarity or especially vulnerable to extinction because of some factor of its biology).—A. Diamond

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Native S1 (State Rank) G1 (Global Rank)

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