Blue potatobush
Lycianthes rantonnetii (Carrière) Bitter
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 1.8 m
- wide
- 1.8 m
Solanaceae
Also called Blue potato bush, Paraguayan nightshade, Blue potato-shrub, Blue Potato Bush
Formerly Solanum japonicum, Solanum muticum, Solanum rantonnetii, Solanum urbanum
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- ShrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- SubtropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Bolivia to SE. & S. Brazil and NE. ArgentinaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Height
- 1.8 mRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS 1.5–2.5 m; Wikipedia 6–6 ft
- Spread
- 1.8 mRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS 1.5–2.5 m; Wikipedia 6–6 ft
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from RHS, one source
- Flowers
- Purple, blueRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS blue, purple; Wikipedia blue, purple, violet
- Coldest it survives
- -5 °C (USDA zone 9a)Read from RHS, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Spanish
- solano lavanda, Liciantes
- French
- Arbre à gentiane
- German
- Enzianstrauch, Kartoffelbaum
- Finnish
- helmikoisoke, Kesäkoiso
- Czech
- lilkovník hořcokvětý
- Greek
- Μπλε σολάνο
- Chinese (China)
- 蓝花茄
- Russian
- Паслён Рантонне
- Swedish
- himmelsöga, Himmelsöga
- Portuguese
- Solano-azul
- Hebrew
- סולנום רנטונט
- Turkish
- Mavi Patates Çalısı
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- RHS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 4.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- 3D model: Lycianthes rantonnetii (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.