Solanum seaforthianum (Knapp, Sandra 2013)
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Ordo: Solanales
Familia: Solanaceae
Genus: Solanum
Name
Solanum seaforthianum Andrews, Bot. Repos. tab. 504. 1808 – Wikispecies link – Pensoft Profile
- Solanum seaforthianum Knapp, Sandra, 2013, PhytoKeys 22: 1-1.
Description
Description. Woody vines, twining by the petioles. Stems terete, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with white simple uniseriate trichomes ca. 0.2 mm long; new growth glabrous or with a few simple uniseriate trichomes on the stems, often drying black. Bark of older stems brown to reddish brown. Sympodial units plurifoliate. Leaves simple or more often pinnatifid to deeply pinnatifid with up to 4 pairs of leaflets, (2-)3.5-10(-13) cm long, (1-)2-9(-11) cm wide, elliptic to broadly triangular in outline, widest in the basal third, membranous, the upper surfaces glabrous or with tiny simple uniseriate trichomes on the veins and margins, these sometimes extending to the lamina near the base, the lower surfaces glabrous; primary veins 4-6 pairs, in lobed leaves corresponding to the number of lobes, often drying yellowish brown; base acute, truncate or slightly cordate, occasionally oblique and asymmetric; margins less commonly entire, usually 3-7 lobed, the lobes to 5 cm long, 2 cm wide, smaller basiscopically; apex acute to acuminate; petioles 1-4 cm long, adaxially pubescent in a tiny groove with tiny simple trichomes like those of the upper leaf surfaces, twining. Inflorescences terminal, later lateral, to 25 cm long or more, with many open, divaricate branches, with up to 100 or more flowers, glabrous; peduncle to 6 cm long; pedicels 0.8-1.4 cm long, ca. 0.5 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the apex, glabrous, articulated at the base from a small sleeve, leaving a small peg on the inflorescence axis; pedicel scars irregularly spaced 2-6 mm apart, closer together near the tips of the inflorescence branches. Buds globose, slightly inflated, the corolla strongly exserted from the calyx tube long before anthesis. Buds globose, slightly inflated, the corolla strongly exserted from the calyx tube long before anthesis. Flowers all perfect, 5-merous. Calyx tube ca. 0.5 mm long, flattened and open, the lobes <0.2 mm long, mere apiculae from the entire rim, glabrous with tufts of tiny simple trichomes to 0.2 mm on the apiculae. Corolla 1.1-2.5 cm in diameter, violet or pale violet, stellate, lobed 1/2 to 2/3 of the way to the base, the lobes 5-9 mm long, 3-4.5 mm wide, spreading or slightly cupped at anthesis, densely and minutely pubescent on the tips and margins, the trichomes simple, uniseriate, tangled, otherwise glabrous. Filament tube minute, the free portion of the filaments markedly unequal, the longest filament 2-3 mm long, elongating as anthesis progresses, the other four 1-1.5 mm long, quite variable in length, occasionally with two filaments longer, all glabrous; anthers 2-3 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, occasionally one anther slightly larger, ellipsoid, loosely connivent, yellow, poricidal at the tips, the pores not markedly lengthening to slits with age. Ovary glabrous; style 7-10 mm long, strongly curved away from the anther on the long filament, glabrous, sometimes violet; stigma capitate, the surface minutely papillose. Fruit a globose berry, 0.8-1.4 cm in diameter, bright shiny red when ripe, glabrous, the pericarp thin; fruiting pedicels 0.8-1.4 cm long, ca. 1 mm in diameter at base and apex, pendent from weight of berries, not markedly woody. Seeds 4-20 per berry, 4-4.5 mm long, 2.5-3 mm wide, flattened-reniform, pale yellowish tan, the surfaces minutely pitted, the testal cells pentagonal, the lateral cell walls elongate to 0.5 mm long, leaving a wing of ca. 0.5 mm around the seed and the seed appearing pubescent. Chromosome number: n=12 (Sarkar et al. 1980).
Distribution
Distribution (Figure 87). Probably native to the islands of the West Indies and coastal northern South America in Colombia and Venezuela, perhaps also on the Caribbean slope of Central America and Mexico; widely cultivated in the tropics and subtropics (often escaped and apparently naturalised).
Discussion
Discussion. Solanum seaforthianum is most similar to the Mexican and Central American Solanum dulcamaroides, with which it shares large inflorescences, globose, slightly inflated buds, and flowers with fleshy, keeled lobes. Solanum seaforthianum is easily distinguished from that species in its mostly pinnate leaves (rather than mostly simple on flowering stems) that are almost completely glabrous, and its unequal filaments. The anthers of Solanum dulcamaroides are unusual in that they have a thick, papillate abaxial surface, not present in Solanum seaforthianum. Unequal filaments are also found in the somewhat similar species Solanum flaccidum of southern Brazil and the widespread but morphologically quite distinct Solanum uncinellum. Solanum seaforthianum can be easily distinguished from Solanum uncinellum by its glabrous pinnate leaves, ellipsoid (rather than elongate and pointed) buds, ellipsoid rather than tapering anthers, and its broader corolla lobes. It differs from Solanum flaccidum in its bright red (rather than purple) berries and the glabrous, mostly pinnate or pinnatifid leaves. The native distributions of these taxa do not overlap, but as Solanum seaforthianum is often cultivated, it can be found in a variety of regions, both cultivated and naturalised. The leaves of Solanum seaforthianum are most usually pinnate or pinnatifid and only rarely simple, the reverse of the case in many other species of the Dulcamaroid clade, except Solanum angustifidum. Solanum seaforthianum differs from Solanum angustifidum in having broad, rather than narrow, leaf lobes and glabrous filaments. In other taxa juvenile leaves are pinnate (see Solanum dulcamaroides), so it may be that the pinnate leaves of Solanum seaforthianum that persist on mature stems are neotenic in nature. The mechanism by which leaf shape is regulated in this group, however, has not been investigated. Solanum seaforthianum is widely cultivated in tropical areas for its showy flowers in large inflorescences, as is Solanum laxum from southern South America. The two taxa are easily distinguished by leaf shape (pinnate versus simple), pubescence (glabrous versus pubescent with tufts of trichomes in the vein axils) and berry color (red versus purple). The corollas of Solanum seaforthianum are more deeply divided than those of Solanum laxum, and are usually purple rather than white in cultivation. Solanum seaforthianum appears to have escaped from cultivation in both Australia and South Africa, but the extent of its spread is not clear at present. No original material traceable to the protologue of Solanum seaforthianum exists; Symon (1981) used the original plate (see Figure 88) as the lectotype. Both Solanum cyrrhosum and Solanum salignum were based on collections made by Alexander von Humboldt and Aime Bonpland in northern Venezuela. It is likely that these are based on the same gathering (see Lack 2004; Knapp 2007) but in the absence of direct evidence I have considered them to be heterotypic; the sheets in P and B-W differ in leaf morphology and may not be from the same plants. I have lectotypified Solanum cyrrhosum with the more completely labelled of two sheets in P-Bonpl. (P000136348). The spelling of Solanum cyrrhosum (e.g., Nee 1999) has sometimes been un-necessarily corrected to "cirrhosum". Of the many syntypes of Solanum tenuifolium, the sheet in G-DC of Vargas 246, collected in 1830, has a label in Dunal's hand saying "Solanum tenuifolium nob.", making it the logical choice for a lectotype. Five syntypes were cited in the protologue of Solanum seaforthianum var. disjunctum, two from Cuba (Combs 35, van Hermann 5080), two from Haiti (Buch 80, Buch 467) and one from St. Jan (US Virgin Islands, Raunkiaer 3127), all housed in B, all now destroyed; I have found multiple duplicates of only one of these (Combs 35 from Cuba) and the sheet at GH (GH00077562) is here selected as the lectotype. The holotype of Solanum kerrii in P bears no locality information, but of three duplicates in BM (the first set of Kerr's collections) only one, Kerr 2092 collected in 1911, is possible type material; the other two sheets were collected in December 1914 (in Chiang Mai) and 1921 (without locality), too late to have been used by Bonati in 1914.
Taxon Treatment
- Knapp, Sandra; 2013: A revision of the Dulcamaroid Clade of Solanum L. (Solanaceae), PhytoKeys 22: 1-1. doi
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