Horsenettle, Solanum carolinense? Here is a link that might be useful: Solanum carolinense

Solarization may help with Early Blight or other diseases but LATE Blight needs a host plant to survive... if you removed your plants, be sure you leave no signs of them, like leaves or fruit that may have fallen off... clean up any nightshade family weeds that may be around too. Here is the some of the latest FAQ about the northeast Late Blight problem... "Some plants may escape late blight if the pathogen does not get on them. However, the chances of this happening this year are very low based on the fact occurrence of late blight is very widespread very early in the summer growing season. " "This year there will be a lot of wind-dispersed spores with so many occurrences of late blight widely distributed in the eastern U.S. this early in the season. These spores can be moved long distances." 3. Can plants be saved in a garden once late blight starts to develop? This depends on amount of symptoms seen, type of symptoms, how early in disease development symptoms were found, environmental conditions, proximity to other gardens or farms where late blight is developing, and management steps being taken. It is more likely possible to save plants in a garden if when the first symptoms are found: 1. There are very few. 2. They are on the leaves and not stems. 3. The garden has been inspected very thoroughly on a frequent basis (preferably daily) and thus the symptoms are discovered shortly after they formed. 4. Conditions are expected to be hot with no rain or lengthy dew for a prolonged period. (uh-oh!) 5. There are no nearby places with late blight that could be a source for more spores. 6. Further development of late blight will be slowed by regularly removing affected tissue (daily cut off and bag, preferably during the day when plants are dry and there will be sunshine for several hours afterwards) and applying fungicides (minimum of weekly). Additionally, success is more likely if fungicides were applied before symptoms were seen (thus there will be fewer initial symptoms) and spray coverage is maximized by using a pressurized pesticide sprayer to plants that are trellised. Removing extra branches will also help. Realize that even with an ideal situation (all above conditions met) there is no guarantee that success will be achieved. Late blight is a very destructive and difficult to manage disease. Impact can be great considering that tomato fruit and potato tubers that become infected can quickly rot. Plants can be killed quickly when late blight is not managed. A spot (lesion) can form within 4 days of when a spore lands on a plant (even faster, less than 3 days, with one strain of this pathogen) and a day later be producing spores that can be dispersed by the wind to healthy plant tissue resulting in more spots within a few days. Lesions that develop on stems are especially destructive. Late blight is not like most other diseases (e.g. Septoria leaf spot and anthracnose) that you can live with unmanaged because the plants wont be killed and all fruit lost. Late blight needs to be aggressively managed not only to try to save plants in the garden but also to avoid having the affected plants serve as a source of inoculum (wind-dispersed spores) for other gardens and farms. Promptly remove affected plant tissue on a regular basis. Realize that when symptoms are first seen, all points of infection likely are not yet visible. There is a latent period of a few days between infection and when symptoms are visible. No fungicide can cure tissue that is already affected, and this tissue will produce more inoculum. " "Fungicides cannot cure a spot that has already developed (disease control in plants is very different from humans). This tissue will soon die, but before it does the pathogen will produce hundreds of spores. The more spores, the greater the odds some will be dispersed to plant tissue that has not received fungicide. It is difficult to achieve complete coverage of plant tissue with fungicide, especially when a contact* fungicide is used, even with the best farm sprayer. The underside of leaves is an especially difficult area to reach (the pathogen can infect through either surface), " "After about 7 days the concentration (dose) of many fungicides can be too low to be adequately effective. "

You ask a very interesting question, dremmacopp, & your perspective is certainly worth considering. There are people, & I'm one, who take the view that ecological systems have evolved over millions of years & are still evolving. However, this evolution is, in most cases, extremely gradual & gives species time to adapt. This time isn't available to species when humans are the ones doing the changing. For better or worse humans have developed technologies which have the power to make massive changes to ecologies in very short spaces of time so that species don't have time to adapt. The result is that ecologies are devastated. E.g., humans developed boats which transported plants to other countries. The introduced plants had no predators & became invasive, shutting out the natural vegetation. Natural ecological systems were destroyed. The problem with this is that we're dependent on healthy ecological systems for our own well being. An example of the risk we're taking by wrecking ecological systems is in the large scale clearing of bushland to plant one crop. The bushland with its very gradually changing ecological systems with all species & their resources (soil, water) is replaced by a one species, e.g., wheat or corn. If a bug which likes wheat gets into the wheat field there is no predator to control it because the predator which once lived in the bushland has died out. So the farmer gets out the poisons & sprays the bugs but poisons the food on which we depend. The soil in which the food grows is also poisoned for future generations. To take such risks with ecological systems is to put our own species at risk. Some would argue that technology will solve the massive problems created by ecological destruction. Such a position is extremely radical & ignores the critical importance of the cautionary principle in environmental matters. After all the environment is what we all depend on for our existence. I hope that this goes some way, at least, to clearing your confusion. I'm happy to discuss further any issues you may wish to raise, dremmacopp.

Gardengal48 - I looked up Solanum viarum. The leafy parts are similar, having thorns. But I wonder if I should be seeing any of the "fruit" growth yet (or if I'm just pulling them before they reach that level of maturity). Another point of note, the root system of Solanum viarum appears to be a (what I would call) ball root system. I just dug one up that had a singular root stem with about 6 branches (straight up, none were branching out) that was about 10 inches deep. I should mention that the root snapped off at ten inches, there was more deeper. But being I am in north Texas, we have this black clay about 3 inches below the surface. Making the act of pulling any root... tedious to say the least. In any regard, I will pick up some Glyphosate and treat the affected areas. I'm not worried so much about it killing the Bermuda in those locations (as it is Bermuda and grows back in fairly quickly). However, I wonder if I should be concerned about run off. Since I water my yard about 3 times a week - should I hold off on watering until this nuisance is eradicated?