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Yes, jasmine nightshade is rated fire resistant, but the label rests mainly on expert and compiled plant lists rather than primary testing.
Jasmine nightshade (Solanum jasminoides) is a vine in the Solanaceae family. All four assessments favor its use. The Generalitat Valenciana recommends it as a low-flammability climber for gardens near wildland in Valencia, Spain and the western Mediterranean. Fire Safe Marin lists it as fire resistant in Marin County, California, while requiring irrigation, removal of dead material, and attention to plant placement and spacing.
The University of California Forest Products Laboratory reported that nine earlier references recommended jasmine nightshade for high-fire-risk areas. The Diablo Firesafe Council cites nine references for jasmine nightshade, exceeding its favorable table's threshold of at least three references giving favorable fire-performance ratings. These figures count recommendations, not laboratory experiments. The university report says its underlying lists often used undefined terms and lacked a scientific basis, while the Diablo guide says most ranking terms in its references were undefined.
The recommendations consistently land on the favorable side, but their foundation calls for restraint. Jasmine nightshade is a supported fire-resistant landscaping choice, not a plant proven resistant through extensive primary testing.
Form
vine
Region
Valencia, Spain
Rated in
California; Marin County, California; Valencia, Spain / western Mediterranean
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
The guide presents itself as fire performance ratings for common landscape plants in a fire-prone California setting. FireApproved publishes 104 exact owners as republished California context. It is not an independent rating, a current endorsement, or parcel suitability.
Marin County (CA footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2019-01-01
The publication is explicitly limited to plants common to Marin County. FireApproved publishes 104 exact owners as Marin regional context while retaining its placement, spacing, irrigation, and maintenance boundary. It is not statewide California guidance or parcel suitability.
The UC Forest Products Laboratory says the guide covers properties of common California landscaping plants and was prepared for California fire agencies. FireApproved publishes 130 exact owners at historical California publication scope. The report is a 1997 compilation, not a current endorsement, site rating, or independent test of every row.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Native range
Introduced / established
1 sourced range or established record. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Conditions in the fire evidence
These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interf…: Chapter 4, Landscape Vegetation Database [ucfpl-1997] (with its recommendation)
Fire Performance of Common Plants: Table 1 (favorable in 3 or more references) [diablo-guide-to-plants-three-reference-vote] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Fire Performance of Common Plants (Guide to Plants) — Diablo Firesafe Council · live page captured 2026-08-29 · original sourceCorroborationMirrorlineage: ucfpl-berkeley resolves to Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants
“Table 1: favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references (refs 8,9,12,17,26,30,37,40,41)”
The Diablo Firesafe Council Guide to Plants lists Solanum jasminoides (Potato vine) as vine, evergreen or deciduous, in Table 1: plants with a favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references. The guide cites 9 of its 57 numbered references for this row (8,9,12,17,26,30,37,40,41). The guide states the ranking terms in its underlying references were mostly undefined and makes no attempt to rank within the list, and that fire performance is compromised without maintenance.
