Type:
Ecuador. Loja: among bushes in clearings on upper slopes of Villonaco, 15 km from Loja on road to Catamayo, 17 Mar 1958, D.S. Correll and G. Albornoz E381 (holotype, LL [Correll neg. 177, BM000882152, NY, UC-1152162]; isotypes, F-1561939, G-87701, LL-3 sheets [Correll neg. 176, BM000882151, NY, UC-1152162; Correll neg. 449, BM000882149, UC-1152162, NY; Correll neg. 450, BM000882150, NY, UC-1152162], MO-1772288, NY00259403, U0006803, UC-1176448, US00588700).
Habit:
Herbs 0.4-1 m tall, erect. Stems 3-5 mm in diameter at base of plant, winged or unwinged, the wings 0-0.21 mm wide, glabrous.
Sympodial structure:
Sympodial units tri- to plurifoliate, not geminate.
Leaves:
Leaves odd-pinnate, the blades 10.5-26 x 6.6-14 cm, light green abaxially and dark green adaxially, coriaceous and shiny, glabrous adaxially, glabrous to glabrescent with very short hairs abaxially; lateral leaflet pairs 5-7, increasing in size toward the middle of leaf and then decreasing toward the leaf base, with the terminal leaflet generally subequal or smaller to the laterals; most distal lateral leaflets 3-8.5 x 0.7-2.2 cm, elliptic, the apex acute to acuminate, the base petiolulate or sessile and slightly decurrent on the rachis, attenuate to rounded, asymmetric with more tissue on the basiscopic side; terminal leaflet 3.7-6.5 x 0.9-2 cm, elliptic, the apex acute to acuminate, the base cuneate; interjected leaflets 14-85, sessile to short petiolulate, ovate to orbicular; petioles 1-5.5 cm, glabrous. Pseudostipules 3-5 mm long, glabrous to subglabrous.
Inflorescences:
Inflorescences 6-10 cm, terminal with a subtending axillary bud, generally in distal half of the plant, usually forked, with 22-86 flowers, with all flowers apparently perfect, the axes glabrous; peduncle 0.5-10.4 cm long; pedicels 10-24 mm long in flower and fruit, spaced 5-10 mm apart, articulated high in the distal half.
Flowers:
Flowers homostylous, 5-merous. Calyx 4-9 mm long, the tube 1-3 mm, the lobes 2-5 mm, ovate to lanceolate, the acumens 0.4-3 mm long, glabrous. Corolla 2-3.7 cm in diameter, pentagonal to rotate-pentagonal, white with a lilac streak on the back of the lobes, the tube 1-2 mm long, the acumens 0.5-0.8 mm long, the corolla edges flat, slightly folded dorsally, glabrous abaxially and adaxially. Stamens with the filaments 1-2 mm long; anthers 4-8 mm long, lanceolate, connivent, yellow, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age. Ovary glabrous; style 3-10 mm x ca. 1 mm, exceeding stamens by 0.9-4 mm, straight, glabrous; stigma clavate to capitate.
Fruits:
Fruit an ovoid berry, 1.1-1.4 cm in diameter, medium green, glabrous.
Seeds:
Seeds from living specimens ovoid and ca. 2 mm long, whitish to greenish in fresh condition and drying brownish, with a thick covering of “hair-like” lateral walls of the testal cells that make the seeds mucilaginous when wet, green-white throughout; testal cells honeycomb-shaped when lateral walls removed by enzyme digestion.
Phenology:
Flowering and fruiting from March to July.
Solanum albornozii is morphologically similar to S. augustii; both have white corollas with purple stripes and a similar shape. However, they differ in the shape of the fruits, with S. augustii having globose berries and S. albornozii ovoid berries.