Solanum coalitum (Knapp, Sandra 2013)
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Ordo: Solanales
Familia: Solanaceae
Genus: Solanum
Name
Solanum coalitum S. Knapp, Novon 17: 212. 2007 – Wikispecies link – Pensoft Profile
- Solanum coalitum Knapp, Sandra, 2013, PhytoKeys 22: 1-1.
Description
Description. Subshrubs to 1 m tall, sometimes scandent and trailing. Stems glabrous and shining, usually appearing warty from the prominent leaf scars; young stems and leaves completely glabrous or sometimes with a few scattered loose white branched trichomes to 0.5 mm long. Bark of older stems dark brown, shining. Sympodial units plurifoliate. Leaves simple, 2.5-10.4 cm long, 0.7-3.5 cm wide, narrowly elliptic to less commonly elliptic, the upper surfaces glabrous and shiny, sometimes with scattered branched trichomes at the edge where the margin is revolute, the lower surfaces glabrous or sparsely papillate, the papillae drying reddish brown, perhaps glandular; primary veins 5-10 pairs, drying darker than the lamina; base acute to attenuate; margins strongly revolute, pubescent on the upper surfaces where turned under; apex acute; petiole 0.3-1.6 cm long, glabrous and shiny. Inflorescences terminal, 2.5-6 (-10) cm long, branched 4-6 times, with 3-15(-20) flowers, glabrous and shining, or with scattered loosely branched trichomes along the axes; peduncle 2-5.5 cm long; pedicels in flower 0.8-1.3 cm long, stoutish, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 2 mm in diameter at the apex, nodding, glabrous, minutely papillate or sparsely pubescent with loosely branched white trichomes ca. 0.3 mm long, articulated at the base and inserted in a short sleeve ca. 1 mm long; pedicel scars closely spaced and clustered at inflorescence branch tips. Buds globose when very young, soon elliptic and strongly exerted from the calyx tube. Flowers all perfect, 5-merous. Calyx tube 2.5-4 mm long, cup-shaped, strongly constricted at the base, thick and coriaceous, glabrous or with a few branched trichomes like those of the inflorescence axis, the lobes 1-1.5 mm long, broadly deltate or minute, glabrous, with the margins glabrous or densely pubescent with branched trichomes ca. 0.3 mm long. Corolla 2-2.6 cm in diameter, violet to dark mauve-purple, lobed 3/4 of the way to the base, stellate, the lobes 0.9-1.3 mm long, 0.5-0.8 cm wide, slightly campanulate or planar at anthesis, densely pubescent with simple or dendritic trichomes ca. 0.5 mm long on the margins and tips, sometimes with scattered simple trichomes on the abaxial lobe surface, these denser on the petal midvein, the adaxial surface glabrous. Filament tube less than 0.5 mm long; free portion of the filaments 1-1.5 mm long, glabrous; anthers 5-6 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, loosely connivent, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age. Ovary conical, glabrous; style 1-1.2 cm long, straight, glabrous; stigma clavate or 2-lobed, bright green (fide Lewis & Klitgaard 3719), the surface minutely papillate. Fruit a globose berry, 1.2-1.5 cm in diameter, shiny and black when mature, the pericarp thin; fruiting pedicels 2-2.2 cm long, 2-2.5 mm in diameter at the base, 2-3 mm in diameter at the apex, erect, thick and woody. Seeds ca. 10 per berry, 4-5 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, flattened reniform, reddish brown, the margins not enlarged, the surfaces minutely pitted, the testal cells sinuate in outline. Chromosome number unknown.
Distribution
Distribution (Figure 27). Endemic to Ecuador, only known from the paramo of Cerro Toledo S of Loja along the road leading to the Peruvian border, on ridges between the towns of Yangana and Valladolid, at 3150-3460 m in southwestern corner of Parque Nacional Podocarpus.
Discussion
Discussion. Solanum coalitum is a striking species with its large, fleshy bright purple flowers and black fruits. Some specimens of Solanum coalitum have been identified as Solanum stenophyllum, with which it is very similar. Solanum coalitum differs from Solanum stenophyllum in its subshrubby, sometimes trailing habit, its glabrous stems and leaves (except for the peculiar marginal trichome band), its cup-shaped (rather than conical) calyx and its slightly larger flowers that are glabrous abaxially. Trichomes of Solanum coalitum when they occur are looser and more openly dendritic than the almost echinoid trichomes that are distinctly yellowish of Solanum stenophyllum. The fruiting pedicels of Solanum stenophyllum appear to be nodding when fruit are mature, while those of Solanum coalitum are erect. Specimens of Solanum stenophyllum have been collected from the province of Loja (i.e., Jorgensen et al. 477, 1068, BM) from further north and at slightly lower (2600-3000 m) elevations than Solanum coalitum and in drier and/or degraded forests. Solanum stenophyllum grows as a shrub or small treelet, usually in disturbed situations. Some individuals of Solanum stenophyllum in southern Ecuador are very sparsely pubescent, but the conical calyx and yellowish closely branched trichomes serve to distinguish these plants. Solanum coalitum is distinguished from the very similar Solanum imbaburense by its broadly deltate, rather than long triangular calyx lobes, and its leaves with sparsely papillate undersides. The sole locality in which Solanum coalitum has been encountered is the paramo of Cerro Toledo in the extreme southwestern corner of Parque Nacional Podocarpus, one of the largest protected areas in Ecuador. Cerro Toledo is a mixed paramo of tussock grasses and shrubby vegetation on the divide of the Cordillera de Sabanillas; the area is a pathway used by local people to take cattle from one drainage to another, and as such has a medium level of disturbance (Hofstede et al. 2002). Roads constructed by the military to allow access to radio towers have opened the area to others. Hofstede et al. (2002) suggest that the inhospitable nature of the climate in the region (wet, cold and windy) will limit human incursion on a large scale. Cerro Toledo is isolated from other paramo regions of southern Ecuador, and represents one of the southernmost extensions of the paramo habitat in the Andes (Luteyn 1999).
Taxon Treatment
- Knapp, Sandra; 2013: A revision of the Dulcamaroid Clade of Solanum L. (Solanaceae), PhytoKeys 22: 1-1. doi
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