Some kind of Solanaceae aka a nightshade. It is a weed, but hopefully someone closer to you can ID it.

many of them are poisonous ... and generous seeders.. that birds like to spread around ... [which is probably how you got it...]

the pretty grape colored berries can be attractive to little kids who dont know better.. and like to eat stuff ...

get rid of it ASAP imo ... in my garden.. exact precise ID wouldnt matter .. as i was weeding ..... though finding the ID afterwards would be approved ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=nightshade+poisonous&t=ffcm&ia=about

What NHBabs said

Yikes! Thanks to all. Will be sure to yank these today.

The link to the search Ken pasted is going to yield a lot of information about Atropha belladonna. A truly deadly plant, vs. the various species of Solanum, which are not in the same league. Ken should know better after so much time spent here.

If you are still curious about further ID, compare your plant to Solanum nigrum.

I like the purple blooming nightshades that bloom in my fields when things are dying out. But then , it is a field not a garden.

I agree Mara, I've often wondered why plant breeders don't develop a line of silver leafed purple flowering garden plants from those that bloom so beautifully in our Texas fields in the hottest, driest months of the year.

Thanks again, everyone. Tiffany: I sifted through a bunch of S. nigrum images and do believe that's what I have. Or, had -- yanked them a little while ago since it was a consensus the plant is in the nightshade family. Just not something I want taking up real estate in my beds. :)

Coincidentally, I just returned from visiting a lovely couple who gifted me so many wonderful things for my butterfly garden (pipevine and Turk's cap plants, Gregg's mist flower seeds), and they had a similar nightshade plant that had gone to seed: black 'berries' like the ones in the S. nigrum pics -- the mockingbirds were loving their afternoon snack.

Yours may have been planted by mocking birds or other visiting birds who ate the berries elsewhere, or like the ones in my garden, by small rodents storing food for the winter.

Birds would be the most likely scenario, NHBabs -- mockingbirds, blue jays and cardinals galore.

Ragna, I just saw a huge healthy absolutely beautiful clump of profusely blooming nightshade at the nursery where I was buying my dirt. It was knock dead gorgeous. I wanted to take it home.and put that three foot wide by 1' tall clump in my dry garden. It was out in the compressed decomposed gravel parking lot. Not a stitch of shade anywhere/anytime.

Ken, you went and did it again ;-) You've had the 'deadly nightshade isn't a Solanum' lecture several times. Extra homework tonight.

Uh-oh oops...did my thread reopen a can o' worms?

Lady Bird Johnson Wild Flower Center has our field growing silver leaf purple flowering one listed on their site as:

Solanum elaeagnifolium Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav.

Silverleaf nightshade,

Silver-leaf nightshade,

White horse nettle,

Trompillo,

Tomato weed Solanaceae (Potato Family)

Yeah, from a berry. Another one of the members of the imfamous avian gift package gang. THEY'RE WORLDWIDE!

Solanum elaeagnifolium is certainly a beautiful specimen, wantonamara and roselee.

Jay: LOL!

Javiwa, don't worry. Ken's used to the forum school marms after all these years.

Javiwa, it's not your fault there's a member here who has some confusion and wrong ideas and will not let go of them even after being presented with corrections numerous times. You did nothing incorrect or unconventional, quite the opposite, it's been an interesting discussion and I love it when we get a follow-up about what happened to the plant being ID'd. I would have done the same thing if the same plant appeared in certain areas of my yard.

Thanks, Tiffany. After a fairly long hiatus with the yards (keeping the lawn mowed and perennials watered/fertilized/alive -- and, for the front yard, up to HOA code :) ), I returned full force this year and focused on nectar and pollen plants for the butterflies, hummers and bees. Because so much of our beds are taken up by hardy perennials (which I'm loathe to dig up -- and I'm specifically talking to YOU, 20 y/o gardenia monster bush that thrives despite receiving no care whatsoever, with short-lived annual blooms that succumb w/in 24 hours to heat and thrips!), I don't have a ton of space for 'undesirables'.

Given how widespread the birds appear to scatter this nightshade variety's seeds, I'm not worried I'll negatively impact the species: I went ahead and yanked 3-4 yesterday. Most of my beds are mulched, so no seeds sprouted there. I happen to have one bare spot where a tree used to be. Since we're just waiting for the stump to completely die before hitting it with a grinder, I didn't bother mulching that small ring of dirt.

I have many of the silver leaf nightshade plants growing on my wildflower filled hillside. One of the few plants blooming well currently on the dry caliche hillside

Yeah, I’ve seen them growing in caliche ang gumbo soil. You can see them growing by I-35 from Georgetown through SA.

Omar