It is native across the West Indies, from the Florida Keys east to Dominica (excluding Hispaniola).

[2] It is a common species in coastal habitats, often on calcareous soils.

[2] Originally described by Carl Linnaeus, it has a convoluted taxonomic history.

S. bahamense is known by many junior synonyms and involved in several cases of homonymy.

[3] Some additional varieties of S. bahamense have been described, but they are not considered taxonomically distinct today:[3] This Solanales article is a stub.