Solanum absconditum
Endemic to northeastern and northern Brazil, from 300 to 1,000 m, with most specimens were collected in the mountains of Ceará known as “the Ibiapaba-Araripe complex” composed of the plateaus of Ibiapaba and Araripe; and also in patches of the Amazonian savannas, called “cerrado” in Brazil, in areas of deep, sandy, well drained soils that are very poor in nutrients.
Solanum absconditum is a member of the Leptostemonum clade (sensu Weese & Bohs, 2007; Levin et al., 2006) and has been treated as a member of section Erythrotrichum subsect. Erythrotrichum (with reduced monochasia and an andromonoecious plants with several female-fertile flowers at the base) by Agra (2008). Its relationships have not yet been assessed with molecular datasets.
Levin, R.A., N.R. Myers, & L. Bohs 2006. Phylogenetic relationships among the "spiny" solanums (Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum).
Amer. J. Bot. 93: 157-169.
Weese, T.L. & L. Bohs 2007. A Three-Gene Phylogeny of the Genus Solanum (Solanaceae)
Syst. Bot. 32(2): 445-463.
Agra, M.F. 2008. Four New Species of Solanum section Erythrotrichum (Solanaceae) from Brazil and Peru, and a Key to the Species of the Section.
Systematic Botany 33(3): 556-565.
Solanum absconditum is similar to Solanum paludosum both of which have unbranched and few-flowered inflorescences, oblong-urceolate calyces, stellate corollas that are lilac to violet, and fruits held upright. The similarities to S. paludosum are superficial, however, and S. absconditum can be easily distinguished from it. In S. paludosum the leaf blades are elliptic to oval-elliptic and acute at the apex and strongly bicolororous, dark-green and glabrescent above with sparse porrect-stellate sessile trichomes, and yellowish to ferruginous bellow with a compact indument formed by porrect-stellate long stalked trichomes; and the corolla tube is smaller than 3 mm and the lobes are greater than 2 cm long.
The cordate to cordate-lanceolate, weakly bicolorous leaf blades, velutinous, cinereous or yellowish to ferruginous above with stellate-glandular and multiangulate stalked trichomes, the corolla up to 4 cm in diameter, and the 5-6 mm long, oblong-urceolate calyx tube, enlarged and constricted at the base in fruit, constitute a set of morphological characters that are very distinctive for S. absconditum.
The specific epithet, meaning hidden, refers to the oldest collection of this species (Spruce 3), which was erroneously filed together the specimens of Solanum velutinum for more than 150 years. The analysis of the specimens of Spruce‘s collection (1949-1951) pointed out great differences between S. velutinum, which has the holotype deposited in the private Henri van Heurck Herbarium (AWH, soon to be incorporated in BR), and revealed that, in reality, they belong to two species. However, these early collections lacked adequate field data and recent collections with complete specimens, including field data, flowers and fruits have been found, allowing description.