Some similarities to : Many other (but not all) members of the Nightshade Family, but including potato and tomato. The flowers are also reminiscent of those of Borage for the 5 petals have a central column of bunched up stamens sticking rudely out.

Uniquely identifiable characteristics : the five re-curved and purple petals with a yellow spike of anthers sticking out from the centre.

In September and after flowering,the berries start to appear, first green, then yellow, through orange and finally ending up at red. Thus at certain times all four colours are represented and the berries look very attractive, but poisonous, although not as poisonous as some other members of the same Nightshade family. The berries are not round but prolate spheroidal in shape (similar to a rugby ball).

Bittersweet is capable of climbing, but it is a very dysfunctional climber, being quite able to supporting itself, its lower regions being stiff and woody, hence the alternative name Woody Nightshade. When it does entwine (and loosely so) around other plants, it does so ambi-dextrously, without chirality, preferring neither clockwise nor anti-clockwise twinning.

The flowers have five purple petals, re-curving backwards upon themselves to display the brilliantly yellow stamens all bunched up together and sticking rudely out like an extended tongue. This configuration is typical of the Nightshade Family, but not exclusively, Cranberry and Borage also have similarly shaped flowers..

Like many members of the Solanaceae Family, Bittersweet contains poisonous Solanine.

Once used as a source of flavouring until it was recently realised that it contains the dangerously poisonous solanines: solasonine, solamargine and the solasodines solasodine-cahconine, -lycotrioside, -lycotetraoside, -dulcamarine, -soladulcine, and -slamarine.

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