Potato vine

Solanum jasminoides

Solanum Laxum at SCREC in June 2025. Photo: JA Sisneroz

Summary

The Solanum Laxum, commonly known as the white potato vine, serves as a lighter landscape vine. This South American Native is characterized by its scrambling growth pattern that doesn’t rely on tendrils or twining to grow upwards. With long wiry stems, they weave through and lean on support structures to display their foliage. With small, thin, dark-green leaves, this plant creates an airy semi-translucent coverage that is ideal for a soft aesthetic. During its blooming season, white star-shaped flowers with five petals surrounding the prominent yellow center appear in small bunches across the plant. It is hardy in USDA zones 8-11 and maintains its green foliage throughout the entire year.

South Coast REC Results & Discussion

The Potato vine was one of the poorest performing taxa of the trial, with significant mortality observed among the replicates. The foliage consisted of small, thin, and green leaves that provided light coverage. During the blooming season, the plants produced small white star-shaped flowers. However, many of the plants throughout the trial suffered from chlorosis or developed dark, sickly-looking leaves that appeared greyish in color. These health issues were compounded by scale infestations and frequent rabbit damage, which often left the plants with bare branches and, oftentimes, an unacceptable overall appearance.

During the 2024 establishment phase, this taxon struggled significantly as half of the plants died by the end of the year, with several more mortalities following in 2025. Most of the surviving plants remained small in size, covering less than half of the trellis. However, a few individuals managed to perform well and provided light coverage with pretty blooms. There is also quite a bit of variation in performance from the open house results. Participants rated the selected replicates relatively well during the summer. However, as the season progressed into the fall, the ratings plummeted to completely unacceptable levels for their overall appearance. Furthermore, this taxon was determined to be the plant that participants were least likely to use in both open houses. By the end of the trial, the white Potato vine was considered an unreliable performer across the three water treatments due to its high mortality and inconsistent quality and performance.

University of Arizona Results & Discussion

University of California Davis Results & Discussion

Researchers planted 24 plants in 2023, yet after winter mortality, only 14 plants had survived. This species was replanted in 2024. However there were issues with the supplementary irrigation system installed to irrigate the new plants. Some plants perished over the warm summer and fall of 2024. Further mortality occurred over the winter, with 6 plants alive in June 2025. Due to the small sample size, no data was collected. Similarly to Hardenbergia violacea ‘Happy Wanderer’ - one of the original individuals planted in 2023 was kept and it rapidly covered it’s trellis. If given the opportunity in the future, researchers would evaluate potato vine in an attempt to collect data.