This is Black Nightshade—Solanum nigrum. It’s a wild plant found all over the world, often growing along roadsides, in gardens, or at the edge of bush.Despite the name, it’s not the infamous Deadly Nightshade. In fact, the ripe black berries and cooked leaves have been used as food and medicine.But there’s a catch. The green unripe berries are toxic, as is the rest of the plant if not prepared properly. There are also lookalikes that are dangerous.Proper identification is everything. The flowers

Black Nightshade (Solanum nigrum, Solanum ptychanthum, Solanum americanum) are edible. The leaves need to be cooked in some manner (stir fry, sauteed, steamed) to remove their solanine poison but later in the summer, their ripe berries are delicious raw. Identification: Small bush with a coarse, stubbly stem. Leaves are alternating,, diamond-shaped, pinnate veined, with an intact edge. The flowers grow in small clusters, have five white petals that sweep backwards, and yellow happy bits at the c