Solanum somalense
Not known
Horn of Africa, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritraea, and lowland areas of northern and eastern Kenya; growing in Acacia (Vachellia)-Commiphora bushland, open woodland, degraded vegetation, and open ground, on silty sand or limestone, often locally common; 0-1300 m elevation.
Solanum somalense is a member of the Old World clade of subgenus Leptostemonum (the spiny solanums; Levin et al. 2006); within that group it belongs to the Giganteum Clade and is sister to the Indian Solanum pubescens (Vorontsova et al. 2013).
Anderson, G. J., G. Bernardello, L. Bohs, T. Weese and A. Santos-Guerra. 2006. Phylogeny and biogeography of the Canarian Solanum vespertilio and S. lidii (Solanaceae). Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid. 63: 159-167.
Bohs, L., T. Weese, N. Myers, V. Lefgren, N. Thomas and S. Stern. 2007. Zygomorphy and heterandry in Solanum in a phylogenetic context. In Solanaceae VI: genomics meets biodiversity [Actae Horticulturae 745], ed. L. Bohs, J. Giovanni, R. Olmstead, D. Shibata, and D. Spooner, 201-224. Leuven, Belgium: International Society for Horticultural Science.
Edmonds, J. M. 2012. Solanum spp. 1-25, 46-51, 63-64, 67-72. In: J.M. Edmonds, Solanaceae, Flora of Tropical East Africa. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Levin, R. A., N. R. Myers, and L. Bohs. 2006. Phylogenetic relationships among the “spiny solanums” (Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum, Solanaceae). 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
Wright, C. H. 1906. Solanaceae. In Flora of Tropical Africa vol. 4(2), ed. W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 207-261. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Local Names. Many vernacular names are written on herbarium specimens, only the most frequently cited are listed here. Somalia: Kareri/Karere/Kereree: Karire, Karreri (Somali language), Kareri “Ishaak tribes” Collenette 132), Karil (Dammer 1905), Abdureer, Lolo (O’Brien 83), Aduio (Hemming 1820), Dacuur (Somali Medicinal Plant Project 221, K), Dassak (Franchet 1882).
Uses. Fruits used medicinally in Somalia.
Solanum somalense is an erect shrub with noticeable mauve to purple zygomorphic flowers and bright orange berries. The four upper anthers are 5-8 mm long on filaments to 1 mm long and the fifth and lowermost anther is 8-11 mm long, gently curved upwards, with a filament to 5 mm long. In herbarium specimens, the almost black pedicels contrast with the densely stellate-pubescent white stem.
Solanum somalense represents one of at least four independent occurrences of heterandry in African Solanum with S. cymbalariifolium of Somalia, the eastern African species S. coagulans and S. melastomoides of the Coagulans clade, and the Canary Island endemics S. lidii and S. vespertilio (Anderson et al. 2006, Levin et al. 2006, Bohs et al. 2007).
The vegetative and fruiting morphology of S. somalense is deceptively similar to the rotate-flowered S. schimperianum and the two species were often confused after C. H. Wright (1906) cited specimens of S. somalense as S. carense, a synonym of S. schimperianum. When flowering material is available it is obvious that S. schimperianum differs by its pale mauve rotate flowers 1.3-2 cm in diameter and equal anthers 3.5-4.5 mm long, but identifying the two species without flowers is more difficult. Solanum somalense can be distinguished by its erect habit (versus erect to scandent or scrambling in S. schimperianum), bright orange berries (versus orange-red to red berries in S. schimperianum), and larger seeds 3.8-5 × 3.5-3.8 mm (versus in 2.5-3.8 × 2-2.8 mm in S. schimperianum). Jaeger’s (1985) descriptions state that S. somalense has elliptic leaves while S. schimperianum has ovate leaves but we have not found this to be true; leaves of S. schimperianum are strongly ovate with the widest part of the lamina always in the lower ¼-1/3 of the leaf and usually dry unfolded, while the leaves of S. somalense are also ovate although this is less pronounced and they appear longer as they usually dry folded. Both species occur in northern Somalia but they are not in fact sympatric as S. schimperianum occurs at higher elevations at 1500-2800 m while S. somalense is found at 0-1300 m elevation.
Of the two sheets of the type gathering at P, P00341731 is chosen as the lectotype sheet of S. somalense due to its more complete material with flowers and fruits. Edmonds (2012) incorrectly cited the two P sheets as holotype and isotype; they are syntypes and a lectotype must be chosen.