This section is from the book "Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers", by Caroline A. Creevey. Also available from Amazon: Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers.
Family, Nightshade. Color, violet or rarely white. Calyx, 5-parted. Corolla, wheel-shaped, 5-parted. Fruit, a 2-celled berry. Stout, erect perennials, with many stiff, yellowish prickles upon the roughly hairy stem. Leaves, toothed, oblong or ovate, lobed or pinnately cut, 2 to 6 inches long. May to September.
Dry ground and waste places, Connecticut to Florida and westward.
 
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