Solanum seaforthianum, an exotic

Solanum seaforthianum, the slender potato creeper, is herbaceous, a tropical American exotic and declared weed that climbs into trees and shrubs to heights around 3 m.

The leaves are unevenly compound or deeply dissected into two to four pairs of unequal leaflets plus a terminal one. The leaves are soft, dull to deep green. The leaflets attenuate to narrow, pointed tips, particularly the terminal one.

The flowers grow in many-flowered, loose clusters, branched and drooping from leaf axils. The pale mauve to deep purple flowers are five-pointed star-shapes with yellow anthers cohering erectly in the flower centre in Solanum fashion. The long white stigma tip protrudes from the centre among the stamens. Flowering happens from summer to midwinter.

Bunches of shiny, red fruits that are spherical and small, 5 mm to 10 mm in diameter, hang from the plant concurrently with more flowers or afterwards.

The plant is found in South Africa at least in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng. It grows in forests and woodland (Pooley, 1998; Van Wyk and Malan, 1997).