Solanum batoides
Not known.
Madagascar, endemic to southern part of Toliara; growing on sand and limestone at low elevations near sea level..
Solanum batoides has not been included in any molecular phylogenetic analyses to date. It is almost certainly a member of the spiny Madagascar clade within the Old World clade (Levin et al. 2006; Vorontsova et al. 2013). It is likely to be associated with the subclade containing S. myoxotrichum and S. pyracanthos.
D’Arcy, W.G., & A. Rakotozafy 1994. Solanaceae. Famille 176, pp. 1-146. In Flore de Madagascar et des Comores, P. Morat (ed.). Muséum National D’Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
Levin, R.A., N.R. Myers, & L. Bohs 2006. Phylogenetic relationships among the "spiny" solanums (Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum). Amer. J. Bot. 93: 157-169.
Vorontsova, M. S., S. Stern, L. Bohs, and S. Knapp. 2013. African spiny Solanum (subgenus Leptostemonum, Solanaceae): a thorny phylogenetic tangle. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 173: 176-193. doi:10.1111/boj.12053
Solanum batoides is a densely prickly shrub with one or two red prickles 4-6 mm long arising from the adaxial side of the leaf and protruding several millimetres beyond the leaf. It “forms bramble-like thickets on the south of Madagascar” (D’Arcy 1992).
Solanum batoides can be confused with the sympatric small-leaved S. erythracanthum and S. toliaraea. It can be distinguished from S. erythracanthum by its pedicels under 1.5 cm long (versus over 1.5 cm long), leaves positioned on short shoots (versus at least some leaves on main branches) and leaves under 2 cm long (versus mostly over 2 cm long). Solanum batoides differs from S. toliaraea by its calyx that reaches a maximum of 5 mm and bears no more than 2-3 prickles in fruit (versus a strongly accrescent calyx that encloses the mature fruit, developing a dense cover of prickles during fruit development). Distinguishing S. toliaraea and S. batoides without the presence of a fruiting calyx can be more difficult; the leaves of S. batoides are usually discolorous (vs. almost always concolorous), dry brownish green (vs. yellowish green), and S. batoides reaches no higher than 1 m (versus up to 4 m).
We adopt a narrower species concept of Solanum batoides than the one originally employed by D’Arcy and Rakotozafy (1994). Specimens with filiform pedicels over 1.5 cm long, specimens with deeply lobed leaves over 2 cm long and specimens with flat spines over 3 mm wide at base have been referred to S. erythracanthum. Some collections that do not fit within the species boundaries of either S. batoides or S. erythracanthum have recently been made from Toliara; DuPuy et al. M874 has unusually deep leaf lobing and elongated filiform pedicels; and Phillipson 3026 has attenuate leaf bases and long pedicels. We have included them here in S. batoides, but further collecting and assessment of population variability may reveal they represent new taxa.