Solanum trichoneuron Lillo

Authority

Knapp, Sandra D. 2002. section (Solanaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 84: 1-404. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family

Solanaceae

Scientific Name

Solanum trichoneuron Lillo

Type

Type. Argentina. Tucumán: Potrerillo, Alpachiri, 5 Jan 1910, Venturi 410 (holotype, LIL- n.v.; isotype, A).

Synonyms

Solanum oblongum Ruiz & Pav.

Description

Species Description - Shrubs to trees, 2-10 m tall, 10-20 cm diam.; young stems and leaves glabrous and shiny, minutely reddish-resinous; bark of older stems pale yellowish-white. Sympodial units difoliate, geminate. Leaves elliptic, widest at the middle, glabrous above, with tufts of uniseriate trichomes ca. 0.5 mm long in the axils of the main lateral veins beneath, 9-15 x 2.5-6 cm, with 10-12 pairs of main lateral veins, these prominent and somewhat yellowish beneath, the apex acute, the base acute to attenuate, somewhat decurrent onto the petiole; petioles 1-1.8 cm long; minor leaves differing from the major ones only in size, 3-8 x 1-3.5 cm, the apex acute, the base acute to attenuate; petioles 0.5-1 cm long. Inflorescences opposite the leaves or terminal, often overtopping the new leaves near the shoot apex, and later lateral and leaf-opposed, simple, 3-8 cm long, 10-30-flowered, bearing only 2-3 at a time, glabrous and shiny; pedicel scars irregularly spaced 0.5-2 mm apart, beginning ca. 2 cm from the base of the inflorescence. Buds globose when young, later ellipsoid with the exsertion of the corolla, the corolla soon exserted. Pedicels at anthesis 0.7-1 cm long, tapering from the calyx tube to a slender base ca. 0.4 mm diam. Flowers with the calyx tube cup-shaped, 1-1.5 mm long, sparsely pubescent with uniseriate trichomes ca. 0.5 mm long, these often somewhat reddish, the lobes quadrate with terminal cusps, the cusps densely pubescent with uniseriate trichomes ca. 0.1 mm long, the lobes with a few uniseriate trichomes ca. 0.5 mm long; corolla white, 0.6-1 cm diam., lobed 3/4 of the way to the base, the lobes reflexed at anthesis, the tips and margins of the lobes minutely papillose; anthers 2.5-3 x 1 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores teardrop shaped; free portion of the filaments 0.1-0.5 mm long, the filament tube ca. 0.5 mm long; ovary glabrous; style straight, 4.5-6 mm long; stigma capitate, strongly bilobed, the surface minutely papillose. Fruit a globose, green berry, woody in dry specimens, 7-9 mm diam.; fruiting pedicels deflexed and woody, 1.5-2 cm long, ca. 0.75 mm diam. at the base. Seeds dark brown in dry specimens, flattened-reniform, 2-3 x 1-1.5 mm, the margins incrassate and paler, the surfaces deeply pitted. Chromosome number not known.

Discussion

Solanum trichoneuron is most similar to and probably closely related to S. aphyodendron of northern South and Central America. It differs from S. aphyodendron in its longer, often more terminal inflorescences, smaller flowers, quadrate calyx lobes, and smaller berries. Solanum trichoneuron can grow to be a large tree in Tucumán, reaching 20 cm diam. The wood, however, is too soft to be of any use commercially. Few collections of S. trichoneuron from Bolivia exist, but the species is common in northwesternmost Argentina. The ranges of S. aphyodendron and S. trichoneuron nearly abut, and the species are very similar. They are perhaps allopatric or parapatric derivatives of a single ancestral taxon.

Common Names

hedionilla grande

Distribution

In S Bolivia and NW Argentina at 750-1500 m on the eastern slopes of the Andes.

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