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nightshade family

 
Dictionary: nightshade family
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n.
A family of plants, the Solanaceae, characterized by alternate leaves, usually five-petaled flowers, and many-seeded fruits and including the eggplant, tomato, potato, and belladonna as well as the nightshades, capsicum peppers, tobaccos, and petunias.


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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: nightshade family
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Family Solanaceae, composed of at least 2,500 species of flowering plants in 102 genera. Though found worldwide, the nightshades are most abundant in tropical Latin America. Many are economically important as food or medicinal plants. Among the most important are the potato, eggplant, tomato, garden pepper, tobacco, and many garden ornamentals, including the petunia. The medicinally significant nightshades are potent sources of such alkaloids as nicotine, atropine, and scopolamine; they include deadly nightshade (belladonna), jimsonweed (Datura stramonium), henbane, and mandrake. The genus Solanum contains almost half the species in the family. The species usually called nightshade in North America and England is S. dulcamara, also called bittersweet and woody nightshade.

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more