Carolina Horsenettle

Here's some Carolina Horsenettle from last autumn. I'm a little surprised I haven't shown Carolina Horsenettle before. It's not an all-over-the-place plant, but with its small, tomato-like fruit it's fairly eye-catching.

The fruit of this plant is a fairly close relative to the tomato; they're in the same genus. But they're also in the nightshade family of plants. This family of plants contains many familiar food plants, including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and some peppers. But other plants in this family are very poisonous, and unfortunately for would-be wildlife foragers, the Carolina Horsenettle is one of the poisonous plants. The fruits in particular are perhaps the most poisonous part of the plant, though all parts of it are somewhat poisonous, at least to us and livestock. Apparently though some wild birds like turkey and quail can eat the fruit.

What this plant is not is a nettle. It probably got the "nettle" part of it's name because the stem and the underside of its leaves are prickly, somewhat similar to the small stinging needles found on nettles.

September 29, 2021 at Duke Farms
Photo 168357640, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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