Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Solanum viarum; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-13

Solanum viarum Dunal

Tropical soda apple

Solanaceae · Bolivia, Colombia +9

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Solanum viarum, photograph (c) Ramnarayan K, some rights reserved (CC BY)Solanum viarum, photograph (c) Ramnarayan K, some rights reserved (CC BY)Solanum viarum, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Solanum viarum, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Solanum viarum, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Solanum viarum, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 92 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
2.8°C
Record low -2.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,756mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–35DLI
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 viarum, the tropical soda apple, is a species of perennial shrub native to Brazil and Argentina with a prickly stem and prickly leaves. The fruit is golf-ball-sized with the coloration of a watermelon. It is considered an invasive species in the lower eastern coastal states of the United States and more recently in New South Wales and Queensland in Australia (first being spotted on the Mid North Coast in 2010).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Solanum viarum", 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 (1,226 mm of 1,658 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 6.7 °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

1,658 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,226 mm of it October to May. Wettest month November at 184 mm, driest months (2 at 104 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,200 mm to 2,783 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,756 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,658 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: 23 to 35 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 2.8 °C, the absolute minimum -2.2 °C, 27 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 7.3 °C to 18.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.8 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.8 °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: 63 to 65% 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 -110 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 viarum through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 12.1 °C; 1,658 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°frost36.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-2.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 23–35RH 63–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 41 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 / 21–3127 / 22–3026 / 22–2924 / 21–2722 / 18–2720 / 16–2620 / 15–2622 / 18–2623 / 18–2624 / 20–2725 / 21–2926 / 21–30
Night °C18 / 14–2318 / 14–2318 / 14–2316 / 13–2214 / 11–2113 / 8–1912 / 7–1913 / 9–1914 / 10–2016 / 12–2116 / 13–2217 / 14–22
Rain mm131 / 89–334148 / 96–260154 / 112–250156 / 112–316141 / 99–311114 / 40–232104 / 36–209104 / 37–215110 / 73–232165 / 112–288184 / 111–255147 / 101–246
DLI34 / 28–4535 / 28–3932 / 27–3525 / 23–3323 / 18–3223 / 15–3124 / 16–3227 / 21–3630 / 25–3834 / 24–3734 / 23–4334 / 25–46
RH %64 / 55–7164 / 58–7065 / 59–7065 / 61–7065 / 61–7064 / 62–7063 / 60–6963 / 57–6863 / 58–6963 / 58–7165 / 57–7165 / 56–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 41 grid cells holding the 41 in-range records, 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 2315:2527 (-25.775, -53.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.5 °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 41 distinct grid cells holding 41 of the 41 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2315:2527 (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 -26.00_-53.750, lapse-corrected -110 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 383 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.
NativeBolivia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay, Uruguay · introduced: Sierra Leone, Zaïre, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, China South-Central, China Southeast, Korea, Taiwan, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, West Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Lesser Sunda Is., New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mexico Central, Honduras · 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-25.667, -57.467 · in the densest population, 43 records (47% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 91 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 41 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 56 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 190 km away. 1115 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 50 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 91 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 viarum, photograph 1did not loadSolanum viarum, photograph 2did not loadSolanum viarum, photograph 3did not loadSolanum viarum, photograph 4did not loadSolanum viarum, photograph 5did not loadSolanum viarum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Ramnarayan K, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4).

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

Cuphea racemosa Cuphea racemosa Lythraceae Photo: CC BY, Donald Davesne Bernardia pulchella Euphorbiaceae Crotalaria micans Crotalaria micans Caracas rattlebox Photo: CC BY, Robin WhiteCyathea delgadii Cyathea delgadii Cyatheaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAcalypha herzogiana Acalypha herzogiana Dwarf chenilleplant Photo: CC0, author not statedCasearia decandra Casearia decandra Wild honeytree Photo: CC BY, Patrícia Mees

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 Cyphomandra viridiflora; Pionandra viridiflora; Solanum chloranthum; Solanum khasianum subsp. chatterjeeanum; Solanum khasianum var. chatterjeeanum and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Dunal
Native to
Bolivia, Colombia, Peru +8
Wild records
91 in range · 56 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 2026-10-22
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; 9 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 1 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 -26.00_-53.750, lapse-corrected -110 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
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 46 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…