Solanum cardiophyllum

Citation author:

Lindley

Citation:

J. Hort. Soc. London 3: 70, fig. pg. 71. 1848.

Type:

Cultivated in England from tubers collected in MEXICO. Locality unknown: 8000-9000 ft, C. A. Uhde 5 p.p. (holotype: CGE! [Correll neg. 801: BM!, F!, GH!, K!, LL!, NY!, UC!, US!; F neg. 16: [F!, GH!]).

Last edited by:

Spooner, D.M.

Written by:

Spooner, D.M.

Habit:

Herbaceous tuber-bearing perennials up to 0.8 m tall. Stems 2-4 mm in diameter at base of plant.

Sympodial structure:

Sympodial units typically 3-6-foliate.

Leaves:

Pseudostipules to 6-18 mm long, lunate. Leaves odd-pinnate, (3-) 5-15 (-30) cm long, 4.5-10.5 cm wide, glabrous and shiny adaxially and glabrescent abaxially; petioles 1.5-4 cm long; lateral leaflet pairs (1-) 2-3 (-4), the size of the lateral leaflets diminishing abruptly towards the base of the leaf; most distal lateral leaflets 1-10 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, apex acute, obtuse or rounded, base cordate, oblique or slightly cuneate; interjected leaflets 0-2.

Inflorescences:

Inflorescence a dichasially branched, ebracteate, monochasial or dichasial cyme, 2-3 forked, generally in the distal half of the plant, with 4-24 flowers, all flowers perfect, peduncle 1-11.5 cm long; pedicels 6-10 mm long, articulate between the proximal ¼ and the distal ¼.

Flowers:

Flowers with the calyx 2.5-3 mm long, lobes oblong or triangular, mucronate, acumens minute to 0.5 mm long. Corollas 1.3-1.5 cm in diameter, stellate, without acumens, edges of corolla flat, not folded dorsally, white-cream. Anthers 3-4 mm long, connate, yellow, apically poricidally dehiscent and often maturing to a short introrse apical slit, filaments 1-4 mm long. Ovary with style 6-7 mm long, exceeding stamens by 2-2.5 mm, straight, with stigma globose.

Fruits:

Fruits 0.8-1 cm in diameter, globose, light green throughout.

Seeds:

Seeds from living specimens green-white throughout, ovoid, ca. 2 mm long, with a thick covering of “hair-like” lateral walls of the testal cells that make the seeds mucilaginous when wet. Removal of these hair-like lateral walls by enzyme digestion reveals a honeycomb pattern at their base.

Chromosome number:

2n = ploidy missing =24 voucher missing = (Spooner & Hijmans 2001)

Distribution:

Rare in northern Mexico (Durango), then widespread from central Mexico (Jalisco, Aguascalientes, and Zacetecas), south to Oaxaca; 1320-2800 m; in and about cultivated fields, or in sandy or rocky ground, or rich soil, streamsides, grassy fields, in areas of tropical deciduous forests, or mesquite grasslands, or oak or pine or alder forests, xerophytic scrublands.

Phenology:

Flowering and fruiting July through October.

Phylogeny:

Solanum cardiophyllum belongs to the potato clade of Solanum (Bohs, in press). Spooner et al. (2004) erected the Bulbocastana group to unite S. bulbocastanum and S. cardiophyllum, based on cpDNA (Spooner and Sytsma 1992) and AFLP results (Lara-Cabrera and Spooner, in press). The only morphological character uniting these two species is the cream to light yellow corollas not present on any other species from North and Central America.

Commentary:

Solanum cardiophyllum is very similar to S. ehrenbergii, S. jamesii, and S. stenophyllidium. It is distinguished from all of the above by its white-cream to light yellow colored corollas (vs. pure white or pure white tinged with violet), its minute calyx lobe acumens only to 0.5 mm long (vs. 1-2.5 mm long), and its small anthers 3-4 mm long (vs. 4.5-6 mm long).

Bitter (1912) recognized Solanum cardiophyllum subsp. lanceolatum var. amphixanthandrum and var. endoiodandrum when he proposed the combination S. cardiophyllum subsp. lanceolatum. He considered var. amphixanthandrum to be the “typical” variety, and var. endoiodandrum to differ by its purple (not typical yellow) anthers. Berthault’s description mentioned yellow anthers, so Spooner et al. (2004) considered var. amphixanthandrum to apply to the nominate variety. Both names were described from different sheets of Pringle 8599, and Bitter’s annotations on the sheets clarify his choice of sheets. The holotype of var. endoiodandrum has yellow anthers only slightly tinged with purple. Spooner et al. (2004, and this treatment) listed all isotypes of S. lanceolatum under var. amphixanthandrum.

Spooner et al. (2004) considered the locality of the following specimen of S. cardiophyllum mislabeled: Chiapas: Cerro Zontehuitz, almost at the top by the microwave station, 2800 m, 8 Jul 1966, Flores S-952 (CHAPA, K, MEXU). The collection number Flores S-952 is a repeat of another specimen of S. stoloniferum from Michoacán. No collections of S. cardiophyllum have been recorded from Chiapas.

References:

Lara-Cabrera, S. & D.M. Spooner Taxonomy of Mexican diploid wild potato (Solanum sect. Petota) species: AFLP data.
Plant Syst. Evol.

Bitter, G. 1912. Solana nova vel minus cognita, V, VI, IX, X, XI.
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 11: 349-394, 431-473, 12: 1-10, 49-90, 136-162.

Spooner, D.M. & K.J. Sytsma 1992. Reexamination of series relationships of Mexican and Central American wild potatoes (Solanum sect. Petota): evidence from chloroplast DNA restriction site variation.
Syst. Bot. 17:432-448.

Spooner, D.M. & R.J. Hijmans 2001. Potato systematics and germplasm collecting, 1989-2000.
Amer. J. Potato Res. 78:237-268; 395.

Lara-Cabrera, S.I. 2001. Taxonomy of Mexican diploid wild potato (Solanum sect. Petota) species: a morphological and molecular study.
Ph.D. Thesis, Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Spooner, D.M., R.G. van den Berg, A. Rodríguez, J. Bamberg, R.J. Hijmans, & S.I. Lara-Cabrera 2004. Wild potatoes (Solanum section Petota; Solanaceae) of North and Central America.
Syst. Bot. Monog. 68: 1-209 + 9 plates.

Bohs, L. 2005. Major clades in Solanum based on ndhF sequences.
Pp. 27-49 in R. C. Keating, V. C. Hollowell, & T. B. Croat (eds.), A festschrift for William G. D’Arcy: the legacy of a taxonomist. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 104. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Genetics:

Chloroplast DNA restriction site data available in: Spooner and Sytsma (1992). AFLP, morphological, and microsatellite data listed in: Lara-Cabrera (2001).

Taxonomic name:

Solanum cardiophyllum (Solanaceae)

Solanaceae Source

A global taxonomic resource for the nightshade family

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Solanum cardiophyllum

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