Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. Time of bloom: May to September. Seed-time: July to November. Range: Missouri and Kansas to Texas and Arizona. Habitat: Plains and prairies; meadows, pastures, cultivated grounds; invades all crops.

Stems one to three feet high, slender, branching, silver-white with a dense, scurf-like covering of fine, many-rayed hairs, and beset with slender, very sharp prickles, or these are often lacking. Leaves oblong to lance-shaped, obtuse, wavy-edged or entire, covered with fine, star-shaped, white hairs, and narrowed abruptly at the base to short, prickly petioles. Flowers in cymose clusters, appearing terminal but soon becoming lateral, between the leaf axils; corolla violet or light blue, five-lobed, nearly an inch broad; the five stamens with equal tapering anthers, similar to the preceding species; calyx-lobes narrow lance-shaped, acute, hairy. Fruit a globular, yellow berry, about a half-inch in diameter. (Fig. 256.)

Fig. 256.- White Horse Nettle (Solanum eloeagnifolium). X 1/4.

Means of control the same as for the preceding species.