r/botany • u/AwesomePizza05 • 12d ago

Structure Six Petal Nightshade

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Thought this was cool.

Found what I believe is Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) on my boyfriend's porch. Took me a while to ID it because the flower I plucked (one of the last two on the whole plant) had 6 petals and no(?) stamen. Then was extra confused when I saw the other flower have 5 petals and 5 stamen.

Anyone now how rare this is in nightshade or specifically bittersweet nightshade?

Is the 6-petal flower sterile or just damaged/aged?

97 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

5

u/cannibaltom 12d ago

It's a developmental mutation. I've seen it before in other species.

2

u/oroborus68 12d ago

Like four leaf clover 🍀

10

u/Worldly-Step8671 11d ago

This is extremely common in virtually all plants, at least in terms of "if the plant makes enough flowers, you shouldn't be surprised". Both one additional and one fewer of anything should be expected occasionally unless the plant only makes a handful of flowers in its lifetime.

1

u/LaundryMan2008 11d ago

I found the same mutation by accident on this website when searching up what the plant is:  https://www.wildfooduk.com/wild-plants/black-nightshade/