Nightshade

Nightshade is the second plant obtained in Modern Day in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It hurts zombies close to it by slapping them with its leaves. However, it can only do this three times. If powered by a Moonflower, it can regrow and hurl these leaves at zombies, becoming a long-ranged offensive plant.

Origins
It is based on the Solanaceae, which is an economically important family of flowering plants.

Its appearance may be based on Solanum dulcamara, with its leaves being based on the purple petals and its cap being based on the reproductive part of the flower.

Almanac entry
Sun cost: 75

DAMAGE: Heavy

RANGE:  Straight

RECHARGE:  Fast

Nightshades are shadow plants that smack zombies with slappy leaves.

Special:  hurls and regrows leaves when powered

For Nightshade, smacking is a duty and a privilege. He comes from a long line of ardent smackers, and his family counts three kings, four ambassadors and a president as among those proudly slapped around.

Plant Food upgrade
When fed with Plant Food, Nightshade will regrow all of its leaves, then hurl three large leaves at zombies. Each large leaf deals 30 normal damage shots, similar to the large pea Repeater shoots at the end of its Plant Food effect.

The leaves the Nightshade uses will now remain as the powered color, and also have changed damage when in both melee and ranged form. In melee form, it is capable of defeating a Conehead Zombie with one leaf, and a Buckethead Zombie with three leaves. Its ranged leaves deal eight normal damage shots per leaf (tombstones enter their second degrade when hit with one leaf, which occurs at eight normal damage shots).

Strategies
Nightshade's main strength is its high potential effectiveness for its fairly low price of 75 sun: When powered by Moonflower, a Nightshade can deal almost three times as much damage as an average Peashooter, and will therefore have little problem can make much quicker work of Basic and Buckethead Zombies. This ability could also be considered a curse however, as Nightshade is heavily dependent on Moonflower which is a plant with a relatively slow recharge rate, and Nightshade's performance when not powered is below average due to it not being able to regrow its leaves. Nightshade also faces great challenges in the world it is introduced in, as the amount of methods used by the horde to deter straight-shooting projectiles, plus the sheer zombie density can render even the most powerful of single target plants insignificant.

Trivia

 * Nightshade reuses attacking sounds from Cactus.
 * Oddly enough, when Nightshade is not powered, it will sometimes have powered leaves instead of the basic purple leaves.
 * When Nightshade attacks whether powered or not, its leaves turn purple. This is only a visual error. However, if fed Plant Food, its leaves remain as the powered leaves.
 * If one looks closely, Nightshade's costume slightly shakes during its idle animation.