Citation:
Anales Mus. Nac., Santiago de Chile 1891: 65. 1891.
Type:
Chile [Bolivia]. [Tarapacá]: Calcalhuay [Calcalaguai, in Bolivia near Chilean border, ca. 19°50'S, 68°20'W], [Jan 1886 or Mar 1885, see Hawkes and Hjerting 1969: 276], R.A. Philippi s.n. (lectotype, SGO-055467 [F unnumbered neg., F-1373173], designated by Hawkes and Hjerting, 1969: 276).
Written by:
Spooner, D.M. & A. Clausen
Habit:
Herbs 3-30 cm tall, but in sunny conditions usually less than 20 cm tall, decumbent to erect. Stems 1.5-4 mm in diameter at base of plant, green, unwinged, sparsely to densely pubescent with short whitish scabrous hairs; tubers typically borne singly at the end of each stolon.
Sympodial structure:
Sympodial units tri- to plurifoliate, not geminate.
Leaves:
Leaves odd-pinnate, the blades 3.8-13 x 1.5-7.6 cm, green, membranous to chartaceous, pubescent adaxially and abaxially with hairs like those of the stems, some specimens ciliate at the margins; lateral leaflet pairs 2-5, often subequal except for the most proximal 1-2 pairs that are greatly reduced in size; most distal lateral leaflets 0.7-4.2 x 0.3-1.1 cm, narrowly elliptic to linear, the apex acute to obtuse, the base oblique and broadly decurrent; terminal leaflet 2-6 x 0.2-1.1 cm, narrowly elliptic to linear, the apex acute to obtuse, the base attenuate; interjected leaflets typically absent, rarely up to 6, sessile to short petiolulate, ovate to orbicular, the petiolules 0-5 mm; petioles 0.5-2.8 cm, pubescent as the stems. Pseudostipules 2-11 mm long, pubescent with hairs like those of the stem.
Inflorescences:
Inflorescences 2-9 cm, terminal with a subtending axillary bud, generally in distal half of the plant, usually forked, with 3-9 flowers, with all flowers apparently perfect, the axes pubescent with hairs like those of the stem; peduncle 0.5-5.5 cm long; pedicels 0.9-2.5 mm long in flower and fruit, spaced 1-10 mm apart, articulated at or distal to the middle.
Flowers:
Flowers homostylous, 5-merous. Calyx 5-8 mm long, the tube 1-2 mm, the lobes 3-7 mm, acute to long attenuate, the acumens 2-5 mm long, pubescent with hairs like those of the stem. Corolla 1.5-2.8 cm in diameter, substellate to pentagonal to rotate, white to white tinged with blue or purple to entirely blue or purple adaxially and abaxially, the tube 1-2 mm long, the acumens 0.1-0.3 mm long, the corolla edges flat, not folded dorsally, glabrous adaxially, minutely puberulent abaxially, especially along the midribs, ciliate at the margins, especially at the tips of the corollas. Stamens with the filaments 1-2 mm long; anthers 4-6 mm long, lanceolate, connivent, yellow, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age. Ovary glabrous; style 7-10 mm x ca. 1 mm, exceeding stamens by 3-5 mm, straight, glabrous; stigma clavate to capitate.
Fruits:
Fruit a globose berry, 0.8-1 cm in diameter, green when ripe, often with scattered white dots, 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 January to April.
Solanum infundibuliforme is a very distinctive wild potato species with its narrowly elliptic to linear leaves. It frequently grows with S. acaule, S. brevicaule, S. boliviense, S. oplocense and S. viirsooi. It is most similar to S. viirsooi from which it can be differentiated by its decumbent habit, its generally narrower and smaller number of lateral leaflets and the inflorescences situated in the distal part of the plant. The type specimen was collected in Chile when collected in 1885 or 1886 but this locality is now part of Bolivia.