Garden huckleberry, a member of the Solanaceae family and a close relative of black nightshade, is an exotic plant introduced from Africa. Information on garden huckleberry response to a new environment and to herbicides is useful for determining the potential of this species to become an invasive weed, predicting the potential range of this species in the United States, and developing an optimum garden huckleberry management program. Germination and survival of garden huckleberry seed, as affected by environmental factors, were studied under greenhouse and controlled-environment growth chamber conditions. Garden huckleberry seed became viable between 2 and 3 wk after anthesis and was nondormant when separated from fresh berries. Garden huckleberry seed was not photoblastic and germinated equally well under both a 14-h photoperiod and continuous darkness. Seed germinated at constant temperatures from 17 to 35 C, with optimum germination between 22 and 30 C. Germination of garden huckleberry seed markedly declined as the osmotic potential of the germination medium decreased. The optimum pH for germination of garden huckleberry was between 5 and 9. Paraquat, dicamba, and bromoxynil provided excellent garden huckleberry control (95 to 100%); atrazine and glyphosate were more phytotoxic (90%) than imazamox (80%); and acifluorfen and foramsulfuron gave inadequate control.

Nomenclature: Aciflurofen; atrazine; bromoxynil; dicamba; foramsulfuron; glyphosate; imazamox; paraquat; black nightshade, Solanum nigrum L. SOLNI; garden huckleberry, Solanum melanocerasium All.