Jason Wyckoff, age 9, of Iron River, Wis., for his question:

WHAT ARE THE MEMBERS OF THE NIGHTSHADE FAMILY?

Nightshade is a name given to more than 2,000 different herbs, shrubs and tropical trees in the scientific family Salanaceae.

Included in the family are poisonous plants like belladonna Ccalled deadly nightshade), bittersweet (called woody nightshade) and the Jimson weed.

But also in the family are many useful plants including the eggplant, tomato, potato, ground cherry and red pepper. For many years, lots of people in the United States thought that tomatoes were poisonous.

Also in the nightshade family is the tobacco plant and the petunia flower.

Nightshade plants grow most abundantly in the warm areas of the world