It is a large family, commonly called as the ‘potato family’. It is widely distributed in tropics, subtropics and even temperate zones (Fig.)
Vegetative Characters:
Habit: Plants mostly herbs, shrubs and rarely small trees
Stem: herbaceous, rarely woody, aerial; erect, cylindrical, branched, solid or hollow, hairy or glabrous, underground stem in potato (Solarium tuberosum)
Leaves: alternate, simple, rarely pinnately compound, exstipulate; venation reticulate
Floral Characters :
Inflorescence: solitary, axillary or cymose as in Solarium.
Flower: bisexual, actinomorphic
Calyx: sepals five, united, persistent, valvate aestivation
Corolla: petals five, united; valvate aestivation.
Androecium: stamens five, epipetalous
Gynoecium: bicarpellary obligately placed, syncarpous; ovary superior, bilocular, placenta swollen with many ovules, axile.
Fruit: berry or capsule.
Seeds: many, endospermous
Floral Formula : 
Economic Importance :
- Food: tomato, brinjal, potato, etc are eaten as vegetables and salad, raspberry eaten as fruit and chilli used as spices.
- Industry: leaves of tobacco are used in tobacco industry for making bidi, ciggrette etc.
- Medicine: Different types of medicines are obtained from Atropa belladonna, Bignonia, Nicotiana etc.
- Ornamental plants: petunia, henbane, night queen are grown in garden as ornamental plants.
