They are held on dark green succulent stems, which turn black, then a rough light-brown, with age. The flowers appear spasmodically in spring and summer in clusters of 3-5 in the leaf axils. Solanum laciniatum has been cultivated at the Australian National Botanic Gardens since 1969, with no frost damage or major pest or disease problems apparent. As a fast-growing species, hardy in most soil types and conditions, except salt spray, S. laciniatum is ideally suited as a screen plant, in the understorey of a wind break, or for bank and erosion stabilisation. It has also been used in soils with a high concentration of heavy metals when reclaiming mine wastes.
Solanum species are earlier colonisers of cleared or disturbed areas, such as roadways.
Older plants tend to split at the base, which allows wood rot fungi to take hold. Such splitting could be prevented to a large degree by corrective pruning from an early age. Propagation may be from seeds, which require no pre-treatment, or from cuttings taken from spring to autumn. Since the mid 1960s S. laciniatum and S. aviculare have been cultivated and studied in the USSR, NZ, India, Egypt and other countries. The plants, and in particular the young foliage, contain a series of steroids which are of commercial value as raw material for the manufacture of contraceptives.