Solanum nemorense [Dunal ]

Solanum nemorense

Citation author:

Dunal

Citation:

Sol. Hist. 194. 1813.

Last edited by:

Clark, J.L.

Written by:

Clark, J.L.

Habit:

Robust perennial vine or subshrub, 0.5-4 m tall. Stems 0.25-1.5 cm in diameter, hollow, glabrous to sparsely puberulent with unbranched trichomes; internodes 6-16 cm; prickles 2-8 x 2-6 mm wide at base, straight to recurved.

Sympodial structure:

Sympodial units unifoliate (Ecuador & Colombia) to plurifoliate (Brazil, Peru & Bolivia), geminate.

Leaves:

Leaves simple, lobed and unlobed, even on the same specimen; some with or without 2-4 ovate-attenuate lobes, the lobes 4-8 cm wide, the terminal lobe similar in size and shape; others simple and entire, the blades 15-40 (-50) x 7-20 (-35) cm, ca. 2 times as long as wide, ovate or oblong, chartaceous, glabrous adaxially, glabrous or puberulent abaxially, armed with recurved prickles abaxially on main vein; major lateral veins 3-12 on each side; base decurrent to auriculate; margin entire or more often spine-toothed, the spines to 2 mm long; apex acute to attenuate; petiole absent.

Inflorescences:

Inflorescences 2-40 cm, to 45 cm and elongating in fruit, unbranched, occasionally forked, each fork a monochasial cyme (appearing scorpoid), with 6-15 flowers, the plants andromonoecious, with only the lowermost flowers fertile, 3-5 fruits developing per inflorescence, the axes glabrous or nearly so, occasionally armed with straight, broad-based prickles similar to those on foliage and stems; peduncle 2-30 cm; rachis 3-20 cm; pedicels 5-20 mm in flower, 10-40 mm in fruit, spaced 1-10 mm apart, congested toward tip of inflorescence, articulated at or slightly above the base, leaving swollen scars.

Flowers:

Flowers heterostylous, 5-merous. Calyx 5-8 mm in diameter, spreading, the tube 6-8 mm, the lobes ca. 3 x 2 mm, ovate, obtuse at apices, glabrous; fruiting calyx accrescent. Corollas 2-3 cm in diameter, spreading (not reflexed), stellate, uniformly green to greenish-white, the tube 1-2 mm, the lobes 4-6 x 1-3 mm, narrowly triangular to lanceolate, acute at apices, glabrous abaxially and adaxially, grooved adaxially. Stamens with filaments ca. 0.5 mm; anthers 8-10 x ca. 2 mm at base, tapering to long-attenuate toward apices, spreading to connivent, surface papillate, yellow, the pores small and directed distally. Ovary glabrous; style 5-7 x 0.25 mm, cylindrical, straight, glabrous; stigma truncate.

Fruits:

Fruits 3-4 cm in diameter, globose, orange or yellow when ripe, glabrous, the surface shiny. Stone-cell aggregates absent.

Seeds:

Seeds 4-5.5 x 3-4 mm long, strongly flattened, light brown, the surface alveolate, the margin thickened.

Chromosome number:

Not known

Distribution:

Eastern Andes (Ecuador) to Western Andes and lowland Amazonia (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil); clearings, shaded thickets, and riparian forests; lowland to premontane forests; 200-1500 m.

Phylogeny:

Solanum nemorense belongs to a group of species that bear prickles, but lack stellate hairs. These have been placed in section Nemorense (Child, 1983) of subgen. Leptostemonum (Whalen 1984), but molecular phylogenetic analyses of Bohs (2005) and Levin et al. (2006) indicate that this group may not belong with the rest of the spiny Solanums in subg. Leptostemonum. Within sect. Nemorense, S. nemorense is sister to a well-supported group containing S. hoehnei and S. reptans (Levin et al., 2006).

Commentary:

Solanum nemorense differs from other species of the Solanum nemorense group by having simple leaves. The habit, flowers, and fruits of Solanum nemorense and S. barbeyanum are similar. The leaves of Solanum barbeyanum are always compound in contrast to the large simple leaves of S. nemorense. Although the leaves of S. nemorense are commonly lobed, they are not confluent or compound as found in S. barbeyanum.

References:

Child, A. 1983. Taxonomic studies in Solanum L. 1. Section Nemorense Child, sectio nova.
Feddes Repert. 94: 35-42.

Whalen, M.D. 1984. Conspectus of species groups in Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum.
Gentes Herbarum 12 (4): 179-282.

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.

Levin, R.A., N.R. Myers, & L. Bohs 2006. Phylogenetic relationships among the "spiny" solanums (Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum).
Amer. J. Bot. 93: 157-169.

Solanaceae Source

A global taxonomic resource for the nightshade family

Solanaceae

Solanum nemorense Dunal

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