Horse nettle

I have always considered Horse Nettle (Solanum carolinense) a weed because it grew too often in my garden when I had a garden west of SJC. It has thorns on its leaves and stems, so you must be very careful in pulling it or it will stab you.

It is in the same group of plants at the potato and tomato, and it is not an introduced species, which I would expect it to be from is weed-like way, but a native prairie wildflower. It has small berry like fruit, and both its foliage and fruit are toxic to people.

This photo was taken in downtown Rensselaer. As I said, it is a weed even though it is one of our native plants.