Solanum lanceolatum [Cav. ]

Solanum lanceolatum

Citation author:

Cav.

Citation:

Icon. 3: 23, tab. 245. 1795.

Type:

Type. Cultivated in Madrid from Mexican seed (“Habitat in Imperio Mexicano, unde in Regium hortum introductum”), Anon. s.n. (lectotype, designated by Knapp 2007, pg. 198: MA [MA-476351]).

Last edited by:

Sandra Knapp (May 2014)

Written by:

Michael Whalen, Michael Nee and Lynn Bohs

Habit:

Shrub or small tree 0.8-5 m tall. Stems nearly unarmed to sparsely armed with straight or recurved broad-based brownish prickles 2.5-10 mm long, 1-5 mm broad at base; densely pubescent with whitish or ferruginous porrect-stellate to multangulate hairs, these 0.5-0.75 mm in diameter, long-stalked, the stalks 0.5-1.5 mm long, the rays 8-13, the midpoints shorter than to about as long as the rays.

Sympodial structure:

Sympodial units difoliate, geminate or not.

Leaves:

Leaves simple, the blades 5-25 x 2-15 cm, ca. 1.5-2.5 times as long as wide, elliptic to ovate, chartaceous, highly discolorous, dark green and moderately pubescent adaxially with yellowish sessile to short-stalked porrect-stellate to multangulate hairs 0.5-1 mm in diameter, these denser on the main veins, the rays 4-8, the midpoints about as long as the rays, bright white and densely pubescent abaxially with whitish (sometimes ferruginous in young growth) short- to long-stalked porrect-stellate to multangulate hairs 0.75-1.25 mm in diameter, the rays 8-10, the midpoints shorter than the rays, sometimes armed with a few broad-based prickles abaxially on the midrib and main veins; major veins 6-7 on each side of leaf blades; base cuneate to rounded or cordate, often oblique; margin entire or coarsely and shallowly 1-3-lobed on each side, the lobes divided up to halfway to midrib; apex acute; petioles 1-4 cm, densely stellate-pubescent with hairs like those of the stem, unarmed or sparsely armed with prickles like those of the stems.

Inflorescences:

Inflorescences 5-10 cm, extra-axillary, unbranched, forked, or further branched, with 20-50 or more flowers, with all flowers apparently perfect, the axes densely pubescent with hairs like those of the stem, unarmed; peduncle 1-3 cm; rachis 1.5-7 cm; pedicels 5-10 mm long in flower, 10-20 mm long and erect in fruit, spaced 1-5 mm apart, articulated at the base.

Flowers:

Flowers homostylous, 5-merous. Calyx 5-10 mm long, the tube 3-4 mm, the lobes 4-6 x 2-2.5 mm, narrowly triangular with linear-acuminate tips, densely white-pubescent with stellate hairs, unarmed; fruiting calyx not or slightly accrescent, the lobes 4-6 x 2-3 mm, subtending but not covering the fruit. Corolla 2.5-4 cm in diameter, 7-17 mm long, stellate to rotate-stellate, membanaceous, purple, the tube 4-5 mm, the lobes 8-10 x 4-8 mm, deltate, acute at tips, with abundant interpetalar tissue, densely white stellate-pubescent abaxially on lobes, nearly glabrous adaxially, with some sparse hairs on midrib and toward lobe tips, the interpetalar tissue glabrous. Stamens equal, the filament tube 0.5-1 mm, the free part of the filaments 1-2 mm, glabrous; anthers 6-8 x 1-1.5 mm, lanceolate, slightly tapered, not connivent, yellow, the pores small, directed distally, not opening into longitudinal slits with age. Ovary densely stellate-pubescent, especially at apex, or occasionally glabrous; style 6-15 x 0.5-1 mm, cylindrical, straight or curved, glabrous or stellate-pubescent toward the base; stigma capitate.

Fruits:

Fruit a berry, 0.8-1.5 cm in diameter, globose, obtuse at apex, yellow when ripe, densely stellate-pubescent at apex when young, glabrescent when mature, the pericarp thin and mucilaginous.

Seeds:

Seeds numerous, 2-3 x 2-2.5 mm, strongly flattened, reniform in outline, yellow to light brown, the surface nearly smooth.

Chromosome number:

Not known.

Distribution:

Secondary vegetation and disturbed areas in moist or wet forest, frequently in oak-pine forest, southern Mexico through Guatemala to western Panama, 650-2200 (-3000) m.

Phenology:

Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.

Phylogeny:

Solanum lanceolatum is a member of subgen. Leptostemonum sect. Torva (Nee, 1999; the Torva clade of Levin et al., 2006). According to the molecular data of Levin et al. (2006), it is sister to S. torvum, but relatively few taxa of the Torva clade were sampled in this analysis.

Commentary:

Solanum lanceolatum is a variable species and extends from Mexico through Central America but not into South America. It is easily recognized among the Central American Solanum species by the dense white tomentum on the stems and leaf undersides and by the large blue or purple flowers in open inflorescences. Leaf size and shape is highly variable, but when a series of herbarium specimens or living plants are seen in the field, it is evident that only one species is involved. The vigorous leaves on young plants and stump sprouts are large, deeply lobed, and spiny, whereas those from flowering branches are smaller and often entire and unarmed. The phenotypic variability responsible for the creation of so many synonyms can be observed on a single plant.

The populations from the arid plateau and valleys of the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca and a few adjacent areas are more delicate with a tendency toward consistently narrow and thin leaves. The type of S. lanceolatum is from a plant of this sort and it seems to be the predominant form grown in European botanical gardens in the 1800’s. A few collections from near Maltrata and Acultzingo near the Puebla border approach these, whereas the other Mexican collections are mostly of the more robust and widespread form. Taxonomic recognition of these collections at the specific or varietal level does not seem to be warranted at present.

References:

Gentry, J. L., Jr., and P. C. Standley. 1974. Solanaceae. Flora of Guatemala. Fieldiana: Botany 24: 1-151.

Levin, R. A., N. R. Myers, and L. Bohs. 2006. Phylogenetic relationships among the “spiny solanums” (Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum, Solanaceae). American Journal of Botany 93: 157-169.

Nee, M. 1993. Solanaceae II. Flora de Veracruz 72: 1-158.

Nee, M. 1999. Synopsis of Solanum in the New World. Pages 285–333 in M. Nee, D. E. Symon, R. N. Lester & J. P. Jessop (eds.), Solanaceae IV: Advances in Biology and Utilization. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Common names and uses:

Mexico: berengena (Nee, 1999). Guatemala: flor de pajakish (Quezaltenango), limpia-plato (Quezaltenango), friega-plato (Jalapa), huiz (Sacatepéquez), lava-plato (Huehuetenango), kakisacyol (Quecchi; Alta Verapaz), kaqi-paxl (Quecchi; Alta Verapaz) (all from Gentry & Standley, 1974).

Solanaceae Source

A global taxonomic resource for the nightshade family

Solanaceae

Solanum lanceolatum Cav.

Primary tabs

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