Woody Nightshade, Climbing Nightshade, Bittersweet

On Aug 25, 2015, malsprower from Daytona, FL wrote:

When I lived in Stevens Point Wisconsin, it grew in a couple places here and there, the fruit are beautiful as well as the flowers, I personally find it a charming plant as it loves to grow along walls. I never see birds eat it. I loved seeing it every morning walking to and from school. It sure looks pretty!

Update: I have tried growing it in a pot in FL and every bug in the world devours it like grandma's fine cooking. I tried to grow it as an experiment in a pot outside, and when I first had it on the porch, I had a white-fly infestation. When I tried to grow it inside, I had a thrip problem. Outside, leaf-miners, and worms fall in love with it. I may consider throwing sevin dust all over it and the soil around it but I am afraid to kill the good bugs. I am guessing the p... read morelant is weakened by the FL heat and strange weather, and the bugs love weakened plants. It is still barely alive but I am always discovering a new worm on it everyday.

All my specimens died outside, so I'm growing it inside and it is doing very well!

On Jun 1, 2013, plant_it from Valparaiso, IN wrote:

Solanum dulcamara is native to Europe from central Norway, south to northern Africa, and east and central Asia. It was introduced into the U.S. and Canada and has become invasive here. It chokes out native plants and is very difficult to get rid of.

Don't confuse this plant with Oriental Bittersweet and/or American Bittersweet. Oriental Bittersweet is another non-native invasive that is taking over U.S. and Canadian woodlands, displacing native plants. American Bittersweet, on the other hand, is a lovely native vine that is not overly aggressive. Unfortunately, the Oriental Bittersweet is taking over the American variety to the point that American Bittersweet is becoming hard to find in the wild. To tell which you have, look at the position of the berries (American will be a... read moret the end of the vine in a terminal cluster, Oriental will be all along the vine). Both Oriental and American Bittersweet have bright orange roots.

On Jun 19, 2012, skwiff from gillingham,
United Kingdom wrote:

i have never had a problem with this plant. even though most call it a weed it can be a highly ornamental plant if trained correctly, treat it like a grape vine, train it up a trellis and cut it back to a central stem in the winter. the only down side to it is the fact that the plant smells like cat poop but overal look of the plant from a distance is nice :) a good way to stop the birds getting the berries is to get a cat, or to net the vines.

On Jun 22, 2011, WaterCan2 from Eastern Long Island, NY (Zone 7a) wrote:

Extremely invasive and difficult to eradicate, birds seem immune to it's toxicity and spread the seed as well. Grows aggressively and is undeterred by my sandy soil here on the Island, prefers shade. Literally suffocates and cuts light from otherwise healthy trees.

On May 31, 2009, grrrlgeek from Grayslake, IL (Zone 5a) wrote:

Anyone growing this plant needs to cut off the fruit before the birds eat it, as daistuff does, or they will spread it.

Just to set the record straight, the Bittersweet vine mentioned below as being invasive and choking plants, as well as banned in New Hampshire, is the Oriental Bittersweet, Celastrus orbiculatus, introduced in the 1800's. It is NOT American Bittersweet, Celastrus scandens, a native plant that is fine to grow, and is even listed as "exploitably vulnerable" in NY.

On Aug 10, 2008, NHVineLover from Manchester, NH wrote:

If you know what you're doing and are diligent in your gardening habits, this plant can be an absolute joy and wonderful to look at. Planted in a dry area, it is much easier to control instead of it controlling you.
Poisonous to pets and young children, pets actually avoid it, and children should be watched around it as they put everything into their mouths, but they would not appreciate the taste, so it's doubtful they would injest enough to actually make them ill.
In my garden, they are planted along a short expance of wire fencing installed specially to support the vines as a backdrop for a bed of various lillies and hostas. They do not have strangling vines as do the native true bittersweet vine, which is in a totally different family. That being the c... read morease, it's easy to control by cutting back where it's not appreciated or pulling up young plants that self-seed where not wanted.
What I like most about the Solanum Dulcamara, other than it's small tomatoe-like fruit and deep purple, yellow stamened flowers blooming at the same time to create a colourful display is the fact that it attracts innumerable bumble bees and is virtually pest-free. Finches use it for cover, and birds do eat the ripe fruit.
Grown as I have it, in full sun in sandy, well-watered soil, the thick mass of greenery provides a much-needed habitat for the shade-loving hostas and sedums that grow beneath.
One person reported skin eruptions from touching the leaves, etc., but that sounds more like she was pulling out poison ivy rather than woody nightshade. Another mentions it strangling other plants. Again, that sounds more like the common bittersweet that has been banned from being sold by nurseries here in N.H. because if its intrusive, distructive nature rather than the woody nightshade.
Simply, I love it.

On Jun 16, 2007, heathrjoy from Weedville, PA (Zone 6a) wrote:

This certainly is a nasty and invasive weed. I've had it pop up in our unused gravel parking place, year after year. It will choke out nearly any other plantings as the others here have said. I try to stay mostly organic in my garden, but I did have to resort to chemicals for this monster. RoundUp didn't do the job for me. I used a product by Ortho that was labeled to kill Poison Ivy and Blackberries. It is a slow-kill process, but it kills everything it touches (nasty, nasty stuff).

Please don't think you can control this stuff, it's on a mission to take over the world! If you do decide to keep it please at least keep it from going to seed so that your neighbors don't have to deal with it.

On Apr 3, 2007, renwings from Sultan, WA (Zone 8a) wrote:

This plant is a notable homeopathic remedy that is not commonly used, due to the skill required in dosing.
I found it growing under a hemlock tree in my yard this year.

The alkaloid Solanine asks as a narcotic and in large doses paralyzes the central nervous system without affecting peripheral nerves and muscles. An overdose will surely kill you.

On Jul 4, 2006, hildaham from Helena, MT (Zone 4a) wrote:

This plant was all over our landscape when we bought our house a year and a half ago. We didn't know what it was and our toddler picked the berries - luckily we got them out of his mouth before he swallowed any! DO NOT PLANT THIS if you have young children or children that visit. I am still finding it in our yard even though I pull up every plant I see.

On Jul 17, 2005, raccoonwoman from Silver Creek, MN wrote:

The flowers are pretty, and the berries look nice too, but it's much too invasive. I hate the way it will wrap itself all over a
tree(or anything else it can manage to climb on), and wind it's tendrils over everything - makes tearing it
out quite a chore.