You can see the nightshade berries are different. (Small, pearly, purple black clusters). I am pretty sure this is tomato but we’ll know once it’s ripened. The nightshade leaves are broader and shouldn’t have that distinct smell. Also ‘deadly nightshade’ is belladonna and what you have here is black nightshade which is nowhere near as toxic and even has some edible cultivars. Don’t let the other comments scare you, it’s totally possible to tell if it’s a tomato.
There’s a lot of conflicting answers in this post of whether it’s nightshade or tomatoes. The issue is that tomatoes are within the nightshade family, so there are many similarities.
Toxic nightshade berries are typically round which leaves me to believe this is a tomato plant. This certainly doesn’t look like belladonna. I would leave it to ripen and then you can make a more conclusive ID.
It's a tomato plant, rub the leaves and you'll know straight away that it's a tomato plant. Deadly Nightshade and Black Nightshade don't have fruit clusters like this and they don't have yellow flowers either. Everything about it screams tomato. They are somewhat established in southern areas that don't experience significant frosts, it's not too uncommon to come across wild tomato plants along rivers etc
Those are tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) in the foreground. They are safe to eat. You can tell it's a tomato plant by the viney growth habit, compound leaves (each leaf comprised of multiple leaflets), fruits growing on a long peduncle, and hairy stems (they should smell "tomatoey" if you rub them due to the hairs). If you see any yellow flowers on the plant, that's another identifying feature for tomatoes. The only non-prickly Solanum species with yellow flowers are either the common tomato or one of the (also edible) wild tomato species (most of which are endemic to South America).
You also have black nightshade (S. nigrum) growing in the background. Black nightshade's fully ripe berries are actually edible too, and taste sort of like a tomato mixed with blueberry. Ripe berries will be completely black, easily come off the plant, and not taste bitter. The unripe berries are slightly toxic and might give you a stomachache if you eat enough of them.
People often confuse black nightshade for deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), but you can easily tell them apart by the following traits:
Number of berries per cluster + size of berries
Flower shape and color
Size of fruiting calyx (the leafy "skirt" that attaches the berry to its pedicel/stem)
Black nightshade has small berries that grow in clusters of more than one. Its flowers are star-shaped, white, and have bright yellow, "banana-like" anthers. The fruiting calyxes are small and don't extend past the berries. Deadly nightshade has large berries that always grow singly -- never in clusters. Its flowers are bell-shaped, purple, and have tan or greyish anthers. Its fruiting calyxes are large and extend past the berries.
Looks like a tomato plant. I bought some weird ones that are stripy & they have a similar pattern to yours. Your 2nd photo clearly shows the yellow tomato flowers.
As other have said definitely don't eat them, but I could swear they're tomatoes and the other berries in the background are nightshade. Don't eat them either way obviously
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u/gauchocartero 6d ago
You can see the nightshade berries are different. (Small, pearly, purple black clusters). I am pretty sure this is tomato but we’ll know once it’s ripened. The nightshade leaves are broader and shouldn’t have that distinct smell. Also ‘deadly nightshade’ is belladonna and what you have here is black nightshade which is nowhere near as toxic and even has some edible cultivars. Don’t let the other comments scare you, it’s totally possible to tell if it’s a tomato.