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Solanum commersonii; photograph Paso Paso, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYPaso Paso, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Solanum commersonii Poir.

Commerson's nightshade

Solanaceae · Brazil South, Argentina Northeast +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Solanum commersonii Poir.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Dunal ex Poir.

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Solanum commersonii, photograph Agustina Medina, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSolanum commersonii, photograph Agustina Medina, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSolanum commersonii, photograph Agustina Medina, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSolanum commersonii, photograph Agustina Medina, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSolanum commersonii, photograph Agustina Medina, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSolanum commersonii, photograph Eduardo Luis Beltrocco, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-1.1°C
Record low -5.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,208mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Solanum commersonii is a species of wild potato in the family Solanaceae. It is native to southern Brazil, Uruguay, and northeastern Argentina, and has been introduced to Mauritius. It is a crop wild relative useful in potato breeding for its resistance to root knot nematode, soft rot, blackleg, bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum), verticillium wilt, Potato virus X, tobacco etch virus, common scab, and late blight (caused by Phytophthora infestans), and for its frost tolerance and ability to cold acclimate.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Solanum commersonii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Solanum

Solanum is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant. It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae, comprising around 1,500 species. It also contains the so-called horse nettles, as well as numerous plants cultivated for their ornamental flowers and fruit.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Solanum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (886 mm of 1,239 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 12.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to November.

Rain

1,239 mm in the median year at the habitat, 886 mm of it October to May. Wettest months (2 at 122 mm), driest month August at 85 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,055 mm to 1,536 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,208 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,239 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -1.1 °C, the absolute minimum -5.0 °C, 313 frost nights in 44 years, 7.1 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 6.2 °C to 9.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.9 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +37 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Solanum commersonii through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 7.9 °C; 1,239 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost37.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-5.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 14–47RH 59–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 121 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–3026 / 24–2925 / 23–2721 / 20–2418 / 17–2015 / 14–1714 / 13–1716 / 14–1917 / 15–2120 / 18–2423 / 20–2625 / 23–29
Night °C20 / 17–2119 / 17–2118 / 16–1915 / 13–1712 / 10–149 / 7–118 / 6–109 / 7–1110 / 8–1213 / 11–1515 / 13–1718 / 15–19
Rain mm109 / 84–140122 / 95–148122 / 96–141110 / 100–143107 / 77–13293 / 51–12886 / 50–13085 / 51–11789 / 63–146113 / 98–139109 / 92–13694 / 72–128
DLI46 / 41–4739 / 36–4032 / 31–3323 / 22–2417 / 17–1914 / 13–1616 / 15–1821 / 20–2328 / 26–2936 / 33–3743 / 39–4447 / 43–48
RH %60 / 55–6361 / 58–6361 / 58–6361 / 60–6462 / 61–6463 / 62–6563 / 61–6462 / 59–6462 / 58–6461 / 57–6460 / 56–6359 / 56–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 121 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (165 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2426:2499 (-31.325, -55.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 121 distinct grid cells holding 165 of the 166 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2426:2499 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -31.50_-55.000, lapse-corrected +37 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 215 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil South, Argentina Northeast, Uruguay · introduced: Mauritius · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-34.52, -58.01 · in the densest population, 570 records (88% of those in range)
Kew's description“subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 645 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 165 of them in the land cells it reads, of 166 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 525 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 66 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 479 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 645 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Solanum commersonii, photograph 1did not loadSolanum commersonii, photograph 2did not loadSolanum commersonii, photograph 3did not loadSolanum commersonii, photograph 4did not loadSolanum commersonii, photograph 5did not loadSolanum commersonii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Agustina Medina, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5); Eduardo Luis Beltrocco, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Eryngium pandanifolium Eryngium pandanifolium Giant Sea Holly Photo: CC BY, jamie-aaEphedra tweedieana Ephedra tweedieana Horsetail vine Photo: CC BY, Agustina MedinaTradescantia cerinthoides Tradescantia cerinthoides Waxy Spiderwort Photo: CC BY, capacoscarCeltis spinosa Celtis spinosa Cannabaceae Photo: CC BY, Gonzalo RomeroChloraea membranacea Chloraea membranacea Membranous Greenhood Photo: CC BY, Diego BarbozaMyrceugenia glaucescens Myrceugenia glaucescens Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrea Gantzer

Other Solanum 163 in the reference

Solanum abutiloides Solanum abutiloides Dwarf Tamarillo Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneySolanum acaule Solanum acaule Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Staci OréSolanum aculeastrum Solanum aculeastrum Goat Bitter-apple Photo: CC0, author not statedSolanum aculeatissimum Solanum aculeatissimum Dutch eggplant Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloSolanum aethiopicum Solanum aethiopicum Chinese scarlet eggplant Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizSolanum africanum Solanum africanum Solanaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo Solanum ajanhuiri Solanaceae Solanum albidum Solanum albidum Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, biped_cubSolanum aligerum Solanum aligerum Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Juan Carlos Fonseca MataSolanum aloysiifolium Solanum aloysiifolium Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Carla Florencia RodríguezSolanum americanum Solanum americanum American black nightshade Photo: CC BY, Frederick NunleySolanum amygdalifolium Solanum amygdalifolium Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Holger Braun all 164 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Solanum acroleucum; Solanum commersonii f. mechonguense; Solanum commersonii subsp. commersonii; Solanum commersonii subsp. pubescens; Solanum commersonii var. depauperatum and 20 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Poir.
Native to
Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Uruguay
Wild records
645 in range · 525 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7653915 is Solanum commersonii Dunal ex Poir.; the page links Kew's Solanum commersonii Poir., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 15 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -31.50_-55.000, lapse-corrected +37 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 24 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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