Black nightshade or Tomato: how to tell them apart?
Black nightshade and Tomato look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Black nightshade
Solanum nigrum
Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum
The small black berries of black nightshade look like unripe cherry tomatoes, but the whole plant is toxic — unlike the tomato or the potato, its cultivated cousins. A simple check to combine with others: if the "mini tomatoes" are the size of a small pea, grow in small loose clusters and stay black even when ripe, it is not a tomato; if in the slightest doubt, do not eat.
🍃 Leaves
Ovate, slightly wavy margin, alternate
Compound, pinnate, cut, downy and fragrant when crushed
🌸 Flowers
Small, white, five star-shaped petals, yellow stamens grouped in a cone
Yellow, in small drooping clusters
🍎 Fruits
Small glossy black berries in clusters, toxic when unripe
Fleshy berry, red (or yellow, orange...) when ripe, very variable in size and shape depending on the variety
🪵 Bark
Branched herbaceous stem, green to purplish
Hairy, brittle herbaceous stem, giving off a characteristic smell when crushed
📏 Size
20 to 70 cm
50 cm to 2 m tall depending on variety and training
🗺️ Habitat
Gardens, crops, rubble, wasteland
Grown in vegetable gardens, under cover or outdoors
⚠️ Toxicity
Plant and green berries toxic (solanine), notably before ripening; ripe black berries traditionally eaten but with caution
Ripe fruit edible; the green parts (leaves, stems, unripe fruits) contain tomatine, toxic in large quantities
🔎 And from the Tomato side
The small black berries of black nightshade resemble unripe cherry tomatoes, but the whole plant is toxic — unlike the tomato or the potato, its cultivated cousins. A simple marker to combine with others: if the 'mini-tomatoes' are the size of a small pea, grow in small loose clusters and stay black even when ripe, it is not a tomato; if in the slightest doubt, do not eat.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.