Solanaceae Source

A global taxonomic resource for the nightshade family

Solanum demissum

Citation author: 
Lindley
Citation: 
J. Hort. Soc. London 3: 70, fig. pg. 69. 1848.
Type: 
Mexico. Locality unknown: 8000-9000 ft, about 1846-47. C. A. Uhde 5 p.p. (holotype: CGE! [Schubert neg.: GH!, G!; F neg. 17: F!; Correll neg. 576: BM!, F!, GH!, K!, LL!, NY!, UC!, US!]).
Last edited by: 
Spooner, D.M.
Written by: 
Spooner, D.M.
Habit: 
Herbaceous tuber-bearing perennials up to 0.6 m tall, varying from a basal rosette to erect. Stems 3-6 mm in diameter at base of plant.
Sympodial structure: 
Sympodial units typically 3-6-foliate.
Leaves: 
Pseudostipules to 1-5 mm long, lunate. Leaves odd-pinnate, 3.5-20 cm long, 1.5-10 cm wide, finely to coarsely pubescent adaxially and abaxially; petioles 1.5-3 cm long; lateral leaflet pairs 2-4, the size of the lateral leaflets diminishing gradually towards the base of the leaf; most distal lateral leaflets 2-4 cm long, 1.2-2.5 cm wide, ovate to elliptical, apex obtuse to acute, base rounded to cuneate, sessile, generally decurrent on the rachis, sometimes subsessile with petiolules up to 2 mm long; terminal leaflet 3-6 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, ovate to elliptical, apex acute to obtuse, base rounded to cuneate; interjected 0-10.
Inflorescences: 
Inflorescence a dichasially branched, ebracteate, monochasial or dichasial cyme, 2-3 forked, generally in the distal half of the plant, with 5-10 flowers, all flowers perfect, peduncle 0.2-1.9 cm long; pedicels 3-15 mm long, articulate between the proximal ¼ and the distal ¼.
Flowers: 
Flowers with the calyx 4.5-8 mm long, lobes acute, minute, acumens up to 1 mm long. Corollas 1.5-2.6 cm in diameter, rotate, acumens 1-2 mm long, edges of corolla flat, not folded dorsally, violet to violet-purple adaxially, uniform abaxially or lighter purple in the rays and interpetiolar tissue. Anthers 2-4.5 mm long, connate, yellow, apically poricidally dehiscent and often maturing to a short introrse apical slit, filaments 1-4 mm long. Ovary with style 5-6 mm long, exceeding stamens by 2 mm, straight, with stigma globose.
Fruits: 
Fruits 1-2.5 cm in diameter, globose to ovoid, light to medium green, sometimes with smooth white dots.
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 =72 voucher missing = (Spooner & Hijmans 2001)

Distribution: 

Widely distributed from northern Mexico (Chihuahua and Sonora) to Guatemala, (1900) 2100-3700 m; generally at higher elevations in fir and pine or oak or alder or juniper forests, often in very rich organic soil in clearings or edges of dense forests but sometimes in deep shade, among shrubs and forest undergrowth, roadside thickets, grasslands.

Phenology: 
Flowering and fruiting August through October.
Phylogeny: 

Solanum demissum belongs to the potato clade of Solanum (Bohs, in press). Spooner and Sytsma (1992) placed S. demissum as a terminal clade in sect. Petota based chloroplast DNA restriction site data. Spooner et al. (2004) considered S. demissum to be more closely related to other members of ser. Acaulia (S. acaule and S. albicans) than to other members of Hawkes’s (1990) ser. Demissa. They based this conclusion on data from morphological phenetics (Spooner et al. 1995; Kardolus 1999), inflorescence architecture (Kardolus and Groendijk-Wilders 1998) single- to low-copy nuclear restriction fragment length polymorphisms (nRFLPs; Debener et al. 1990; Nakagawa and Hosaka 2002), steroidal glycoalkaloids (Petersen et al. 1993), and AFLPs (Kardolus et al. 1998).

Commentary: 

Solanum demissum is generally easily distinguished by its high pedicel articulation (in the distal ¼ of the pedicel) and inflorescences in the proximal ½ of the plant, but it can be confused with poorly pressed specimens of S. verrucosum (distinguished by its inrolled corolla margins) and S. stoloniferum (that like S. verrucosum has pedicel articulation below the distal ¼ of the pedicel). It frequently, but not consistently, has a semi-rosette habit seen elsewhere in the wild potatoes in North and Central America only in S. guerreroense.

The collection Galeotti 1175 is a mixed gathering. Only one sheet of two at BR is S. demissum, which Spooner et al. (2004) chose as the lectotype of S. stoloniferum var. pumilum.

Klotzsch (1849) based Solanum utile on plants he grew from seeds received in May of 1849 from Friedrich Otto, Director of the Berlin Botanic Garden. The seeds originally were distributed to the “Gessellschaft der Gartenfreunde Berlin’s” by the “Landes-Oekonomie-Collegium” for the purpose of cultivation and experimentation. The Klotzsch specimens at Berlin were destroyed; the neotype of Spooner et al. (2004) dates from 1852 and was part of Klotzsch's herbarium. Two other specimens at UPS from Klotzsch's herbarium are dated 1855. The neotype bears Bitter’s annotation “Solanum demissum var. klotzchii,” a name never published.

Rybin (1929) indicated S. demissum f. xitlense had conical fruits, but the type specimen lacks mature fruits. The high-placed pedicel articulation and enlarged terminal leaflets clearly show it to be S. demissum.

Solanum semidemissum Juz. ex Bukasov was first mentioned in Trudy Prikl. Bot. 47: 60, 480 (1930). Page 60 is the Russian text, and page 480 is its English translation, but there is no description. Juzepczuk (1937) validated the name and cited M. Antipovich 25 and M. Antopovich 28. WIR loaned Spooner et al. (2004) three sheets of Antipovich 25, and one flowering specimen of M. Antipovich 28, which these authors designated the latter as lectotype as it was the most complete specimen.

Juzepczuk (1937) and Hawkes (1990) recognized S. semidemissum as a pentaploid nothospecies, formed by hybridization between S. demissum and S. verrucosum, distributed in the state of México and the Federal District. Pentaploid populations (2n = 5x = 60) similar to these species have been identified as S. semidemissum (Rybin 1933; Juzepczuk 1937; Hawkes 1944), supporting a hybrid origin, but Spooner et al. (2004) could not find any characters to give them even a hint of traits with which to distinguish these hybrids. Solanum semidemissum possibly is a hybrid taxon, which bears further investigation with field study. Spooner et al. (2004) provided the herbarium annotations Hawkes made for S. semidemissum to aid others to pursue this further, but cite them in their treatment as S. demissum: Antipovich 25; Balls et al. 5046; Flores S-696; Hawkes et al. 1597; Hawkes et al. 1675, 2501, 2502, 2503; Lyonnet 2147; Martínez s.n.; Tarn 78; Tarn & Flores 72, 79; Ugent et al. 1188.

Hawkes (1944) listed syntypes for the following three names for which Spooner et al. (2004) designated lectotypes. For S. demissum var. mastoidostigma he cited Balls et al. 4242, Balls et al. 4246 (the lectotype) and Balls et al. 5009; material of Balls et al. 4242 was not located. He based S. demissum var. orientale on Balls et al. 4441 (the lectotype), Balls et al. (4621a, and Balls et al. 5305. For S. demissum var. demissum f. tolucense he listed Balls et al. 4971 and Balls et al. 4971/2 (the lectotype), both from the same locality but the second collection at 11,000 ft. and dated three days later.

Solanum ×edinense is of clear hybrid origin between S. demissum and the cultivated species S. tuberosum. It can be distinguished from S. demissum by its generally wider leaves and taller stature, and from S. tuberosum by its high-placedpedicel articulation. It differs from both its parents by its pentaploidy.

References: 

Klotzsch, J.F. 1849. Solanum utile.
Allg. Gartenzeitung 17: 314-316.

Rybin, V.A. 1929. Karyological investigations on some wild growing and indigenous cultivated potatoes of America [in Russian, English summary].
Trudy. Prikl. Bot. 20: 655-720.

Rybin, V.A. 1933. Results of cytological studies on the South American cultivated and wild potatoes and their importance for breeding.
Trudy. Prikl. Bot. Ser II, 2: 3-100.

Juzepczuk, S.W. 1937. New species of the genus Solanum L. in the group Tuberarium Dun.
Izv. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R. Ser. Biol. 2: 295-331.

Hawkes, J.G. 1944. Potato collecting expeditions in Mexico and South America. II.
Systematic classification of the collections, 1-142. Cambridge: Imp. Bur. Pl. Breed. Genet, Imp. Agric. Bur.

Hawkes, J.G. 1990. The potato: evolution, biodiversity and genetic resources.
Oxford: Belhaven Press.

Debener, T., F. Salamini, & C. Gebhardt. 1990. Phylogeny of wild and cultivated Solanum species based on nuclear restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs).
Theor. Appl. Genet. 79: 360-368.

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.

Petersen, H.W., P.A. Mølgaard, U. Nyman, & C.E. Olsen 1993. Chemotaxonomy of the tuber-bearing Solanum species, subsection Potatoe (Solanaceae).
Biochem. Syst. & Ecol. 21: 629-644.

Spooner, D.M., R.G. van den Berg, & J.B. Bamberg 1995. Examination of species boundaries of Solanum series Demissa and potentially related species in series Acaulia and series Tuberosa (sect. Petota).
Syst. Bot. 20: 295-314.

Kardolus, J.P., H.J. van Eck, & R.G. van den Berg. 1998. The potential of AFLPs in biosystematics: a first application in Solanum taxonomy (Solanaceae).
Pl. Syst. Evol. 210: 87-103.

Kardolus, J.P., & N. Groendijk-Wilders 1998. The inflorescence architecture of Solanum acaule and related taxa of Solanum section Petota (Solanaceae).
Acta Bot. Neerl. 47: 195-207.

Kardolus, J.P. 1999. Morphological variation within series Acaulia Juz. (Solanum sect. Petota).
In Solanaceae IV: Advances in Biology and Utilization, ed. M. Nee, D. E. Symon, R. N. Lester, and J. P. Jessop, 257-274. Kew, U.K.: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

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

Nakagawa, M., & K. Hosaka. 2002. Species relationships between a wild tetraploid potato species, Solanum acaule Bitter, and its related species as revealed by RFLPs of chloroplast and nuclear DNA.
Amer. J. Potato Res. 79: 85-98.

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).

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