Solanum malindiense
Citation:
Syst. Bot. 35: 904. 2010.
Type:
KENYA. Tana River: Nairobi Ranch, Ras Wanawali Sabaa, 5 m, 13 Jul 2006, L. Festo & W. R. Q. Luke 2337 (holotype: EA! [no barcode]; isotypes: MO!, NHT! [no barcode]).
Last edited by:
Sandra Knapp (May 2014)
Written by:
Maria S. Vorontsova & Sandra Knapp
Habit:
Erect to scandent shrub to 2 m, prickly. Young stems terete, densely stellate-pubescent and prickly, with porrect, sessile or variously stalked trichomes, the stalks to 0.1 mm long, the rays 6-8, 0.1-0.2 mm long, the midpoints same length as the rays or shorter, often reduced to globular glands, the prickles 1-3 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide at base, curved, conical to flattened, pale yellow to orange-brown, stellate pubescent in the lower 1/3, spaced 4-15 mm apart; bark of older stems glabrescent, grayish.
Sympodial structure:
Sympodial units difoliate, not geminate.
Leaves:
Leaves simple, the blades 6-8 cm long, 3-6 cm wide, ca. 1.5 times longer than wide, ovate, chartaceous, drying concolorous, yellow-green to yellow-orange; adaxial surface glabrescent; abaxial surface densely stellate-pubescent, with porrect, subsessile trichomes, the stalks less than 0.1 mm long, the rays ca. 8, 0.15-0.2 mm long, the midpoints same length as the rays or shorter, with 0-5 prickles on both surfaces; the primary veins 5-6 pairs, the tertiary venation visible on both surfaces; base cordate; margins weakly lobed, the lobes 2-4 on each side, 0-0.5 cm long, extending to 1/4 of the distance to the midvein, broad-deltate, apically rounded; apex rounded; petiole 1.5-2 cm long, 1/4-1/3 of the leaf blade length, densely stellate-pubescent, with 0-4 prickles.
Inflorescences:
Inflorescences apparently terminal or lateral, 3-4 cm long, unbranched, with 4-10 flowers, 2-4 flowers open at any one time, moderately stellate-pubescent, with 0-5 prickles; peduncle 1-4 mm long; pedicels 0.5-1 cm long, erect, articulated at the base, moderately stellate-pubescent, with 0-2 prickles; pedicel scars spaced 2-4 mm apart.
Flowers:
Flowers 5-merous, heterostylous and the plants andromonoecious, with the lowermost 1-4 flowers long-styled and hermaphrodite, the distal flowers short-styled and staminate. Calyx 5-8 mm long, densely stellate-pubescent, with 0-20 prickles, the lobes 3.5-5 mm long, narrow-deltate, apically long-acuminate. Corolla 2.8-3.7 cm in diameter, mauve, stellate, lobed for 2/3-3/4 of the way to the base, the lobes ca. 12 mm long, ca. 5 mm wide, narrow-deltate, spreading, stellate-pubescent abaxially, the trichomes porrect, subsessile, the rays ca. 8, 0.15-0.25 mm long, the midpoints shorter than the rays. Stamens equal, with the filament tube 2-2.5 mm long, the free portion of the filaments ca. 1.5 mm long; anthers 8.5-9.5 mm long, connivent to spreading, tapering, poricidal at the tips. Ovary stellate-pubescent in the upper 1/2 only; style 1.3-1.5 cm long in long-styled flowers, slender, curved, stellate-pubescent in the lower 2/3.
Fruits:
Fruit a spherical berry, 1-2 per infructescence, ca. 1.5 cm in diameter, the pericarp smooth, yellow at maturity, glabrous; fruiting pedicels 1-2 cm long, 0.8-1 mm in diameter at base, herbaceous becoming woody, pendulous, with 0(-5) prickles; fruiting calyx lobes, elongating to ca. 10 mm long, ca. 1/3 the length of the mature fruit, with 10-30 prickles.
Seeds:
Seeds ca. 50-100 per berry, 2.5-3.5 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, flattened-reniform, orange-brown.
Chromosome number:
Not known
Distribution:
Endemic to coastal Kenya; growing in coastal bush, dunes and sand, often on coral; 0-100 m elevation.
Phenology:
Flowering and fruiting from May to November.
Solanum malindiense is a rare Kenyan endemic with yellowish leaves, long-acuminate calyx lobes, and curved prickles. Solanum malindiense is similar to the more southern S. usaramense from the coastal areas of Mozambique, Tanzania, and southern Kenya, but S. malindiense can be distinguished by its corolla 2.8-3.7 cm in diameter (versus corolla 2.5-3 cm diameter in S. usaramense) and yellow berries ca. 1.5 cm in diameter (versus red berries 0.8-1.1 cm in diameter in S. usaramense). The semi-scandent habit and yellowish regularly undulate leaves of S. malindiense are reminiscent of two other coastal species: the partly sympatric S. zanzibarense and S. litoraneum from coastal Mozambique and Tanzania, although the corollas, anthers and fruit are larger than in either of these species.