The plants of this family are rank-smelling mostly glandular herbs (less often vines, shrubs, or even small trees), with alternate and usually simple leaves lacking stipules; the plants generally have colorless juice and often prickles. Inflorescence is cyme-like (with the central flower developing first) or consists of single flowers borne in leaf axils. Flowers are generally showy and insect-pollinated, nearly always regular and perfect (bisexual), with sepals fused in a five-lobed tube and the five petals partially united to form a symmetrical corolla. Flowers have five stamens that are attached to the base of the corolla tube and alternate with the lobes. There is one compound pistil of two carpels and a single style with a single, often two-lobed stigma. The ovary is superior (located above the point of insertion of the floral whorls) and ovules are attached to the central axis of the usually two-chambered ovary. The fruit forms a berry or septicidal capsule, while the seeds are small, flattened, and numerous.

The Solanaceae family comprises approximately 80 genera and 2,900 species (approximately one-third of which are in the genus Solanum, one of the largest genera of angiosperms), which are often weedy and well-adapted to disturbed habitats. The majority are concentrated in the New World near the family's center of distribution in Central and South America, but species in this family are also distributed world-wide in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions. Various alkaloids (nicotine, atropine, hyoscyamine, scopolamine) are present in Solanaceae. The family is of great economic importance containing as it does numerous food plants (potato, tomato, eggplant, ground-cherry, bell pepper), condiments (chili, tabasco, cayenne peppers), and ornamental plants (petunia, painted tongue, cup flower, butterfly flower, Browallia, Brunfelsia, Cestrum), along with other species known for their medicinal, hallucinogenic, or poisonous properties (such as Nicotiana: tobacco; Mandragora: mandrake; Hyoscynus: henbane, Solanum: nightshade; Datura: jimson-weed; and Atropa: belladona).

To date eight species of this family have been collected in the Oapan, San Juan Tetelcingo, and Ameyaltepec area, belonging to the genera Datura (2 species), Nicotiana (2 species), Physalis (2 species), and Solanum (2 species). The insect pollination of Solanum can be seen in a photo on the species page of Solanum grayi.

The following members of this family have been documented in sources consulted on Guerrero flora: Brachistus pringlei, Capsicum annuum, Capsicum ciliatum, Capsicum frutescens, Datura stramonium, Nicotiana glauca, Nicotiana tabacum, Solanum cornutum, Solanum leucandrum, Solanum rostratum, Solanum sp., Solanum torvum, and Solanum tuberosum.

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