Species
+

Solanum dulcamara L.

Bitter Nightshade, Bittersweet, Bittersweet (EN), Bittersweet Nightshade

Climate known 62 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Solanum dulcamara is a species of vine in the genus Solanum of the family Solanaceae. Common names include bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, bitter nightshade, blue bindweed, Amara Dulcis, climbing nightshade, felonwort, fellenwort, felonwood, poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom, and woody nightshade.

Text from Wikipedia, “Solanum dulcamara”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Solanum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Great Britain +80
Wild records
434 in range· 109 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
824mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 82 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 824 mm a year, wettest October at 82 mm, driest April at 51 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Dulcamara flexuosa Moench; Dulcamara flexuosa subsp. albiflora Opiz; Dulcamara flexuosa subsp. violacea Opiz; Dulcamara flexuosa var. cordata Opiz; Dulcamara flexuosa var. hastiifolia Opiz and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (590 mm of 824 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 14.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 824 mm a year, wettest October at 82 mm, driest April at 51 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

824 mm a year at the habitat, 590 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 82 mm, driest April at 51 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 627 mm to 1088 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -4.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.2 °C, the absolute minimum -10.0 °C, about 49 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.1 °C in February (across the envelope cells -3.9 °C to 3.7 °C), warmest day 22.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 824 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 382 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -10.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 26.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost26.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-10.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 4–35RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 382 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 2–97 / 3–910 / 6–1213 / 10–1617 / 14–2020 / 17–2422 / 19–2622 / 19–2618 / 16–2214 / 12–1710 / 7–127 / 3–9
Night °C1 / -5–41 / -4–43 / -1–55 / 3–79 / 7–1112 / 10–1414 / 13–1714 / 13–1712 / 10–148 / 6–115 / 1–72 / -3–5
Rain mm74 / 47–9657 / 39–7662 / 40–8051 / 40–8464 / 50–9668 / 47–8766 / 45–8868 / 48–9272 / 53–9482 / 59–11580 / 54–11080 / 53–112
DLI5 / 4–1010 / 9–1618 / 16–2428 / 26–3134 / 32–3735 / 33–4034 / 32–3929 / 26–3420 / 18–2712 / 11–186 / 5–114 / 3–9
RH %67 / 63–6965 / 61–6763 / 59–6460 / 57–6260 / 57–6260 / 57–6360 / 56–6361 / 57–6363 / 59–6464 / 62–6667 / 64–6968 / 64–70

Each figure is the median across the 382 grid cells holding the 429 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 741:3587 (52.925, -0.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 382 distinct grid cells holding the 429 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 741:3587 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 53.00_-0.625, lapse-corrected +23 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 69 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Japan, Nansei-shoto, East Himalaya, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Vietnam· introduced: Tasmania, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northwest
Kew's description“scrambling shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker50.932, 5.391 · in the densest population, 299 records (69% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 434 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 109 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 145 km away. 395 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 434 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Solanum dulcamaraSolanum dulcamaraSolanum dulcamaraSolanum dulcamaraSolanum dulcamaraSolanum dulcamaraSolanum dulcamaraSolanum dulcamara

Photographs: (c) Kailey Alderfer, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Luke Padon, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Solanum dulcamara, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Infestation of Wild and Ornamental Noncrop Fruits by Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
J. C. Lee, Amy J. Dreves, Adam Cave, S. Kawai (2015) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Response of predatory mites with different rearing histories to volatiles of uninfested plants
Junji Takabayashi, Marcel Dicke (1992) · Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
Plant endophytes promote growth and alleviate salt stress in Arabidopsis thaliana
Di Fan, Sowmyalakshmi Subramanian, Donald L. Smith (2020) · Scientific Reports
SPECIFICITY IN INDUCED PLANT RESPONSES SHAPES PATTERNS OF HERBIVORE OCCURRENCE ON SOLANUM DULCAMARA
D. V. Viswanathan, Anita Narwani, Jennifer S. Thaler (2005) · Ecology
Phytophthora infestans: An Overview of Methods and Attempts to Combat Late Blight
Artemii A. Ivanov, Egor O. Ukladov, Tatiana S. Golubeva (2021) · Journal of Fungi
Effects of elevated CO2 on five plant‐aphid interactions
Lesley Hughes, Fakhri A. Bazzaz (2001) · Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Solanum 13 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.