SOLANACEAE - Nightshade or Potato Family
Herbs, shrubs, trees, and vines
Leaves alternate and simple
Flowers bisexual, actinomorhic, sepals
and petals fused into tube, stamens sometimes porcidal
85 genera, 2800 species, cosmopolitan but most common in tropical South
America
Members of this family produce a wide range of toxic alkaloids, including
nicotine
Atropa belladonna - deadly nightshade
Datura - Jimsom weed
Nicotiana tabacum - tobacco
Economic importance:
Nicotiana tabacum - tobacco
Lycopersicon - tomato
Solanum tuberosum -
potato
Solanum melongena - eggplant
Capsicum annuum - peppers
Petunia - ornamental annual
The potato has the most positive economic value of any member of this family
and its introduction in Europe was a key component to the Industrial Revolution
Diagnostic characteristics: simple, alternate leaves, flowers 5-merous and
actinomorphic, sepals and petals fused into a tube
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