Safety note: All parts contain solanine and other toxic glycoalkaloids. Unripe green and yellow berries are especially dangerous; ripe red berries are also toxic. Ingestion causes vomiting, dizziness, and seizures. Keep away from children and pets.
Bittersweet Nightshade is a semi-woody introduced vine from Eurasia, now naturalized throughout North America in moist thickets, roadsides, and stream banks. Its distinctive recurved purple petals with bright yellow anthers and clusters of berries that ripen through green, yellow, and red are highly recognizable. It climbs over shrubs and fences, forming dense mats in disturbed areas. Despite its toxicity to humans, ripe berries are consumed by birds that are resistant to the alkaloids.
Habitat
Moist thickets, stream banks, roadsides, woodland edges
Diet
Ripe berries eaten by pheasants, robins, and cedar waxwings
How common
Common
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