Solanum lindenii Rusby

Authority

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

Family

Solanaceae

Scientific Name

Solanum lindenii Rusby

Type

Type. Bolivia. La Paz: Mapiri, Jul-Aug 1892, Bang 1526 (holotype, NY; isotypes, F, K, MO, NY, US).

Synonyms

Solanum psidiifolium Rusby, Solanum devernicascens Bitter

Description

Species Description - Shrubs or small trees, 5-9 m tall; young stems and leaves covered with a pinkish resinous secretion, this cracking and peeling as the parts expand; bark of the older stems reddish-gray, smooth, but still somewhat varnished and resinous. Sympodial units difoliate, geminate. Leaves elliptic, widest at the middle, glabrous and shiny above, drying somewhat dark, glabrous to densely pubescent beneath, the trichomes uniseriate, golden, and usually branched, either along the veins and in the primary vein axils, or covering the entire underside of the lamina; major leaves 10-25 x 5-10 cm, with 8-9 pairs of main lateral veins, these impressed above, prominent and golden below, the apex rounded to acute, the base acute, slightly decurrent on the petiole; petioles 1-1.5 cm long, caniculate above; minor leaves differing from the major ones only in size, 5-6 x 2.5-3.5 cm, the apex rounded to acute, the base acute; petioles 0.8-1.2 cm long. Inflorescences opposite the leaves, simple or occasionally furcate, 1.5-6 cm long, 5-20-flow-ered, resinous like the young stems and leaves; pedicel scars in pairs, the members of a pair closely spaced, but not overlapping, the pairs ca. 0.5 mm apart, the scars beginning about 1/2 way from the base of the inflorescence. Buds globose and completely enclosed in the calyx when young, later the corolla exserted and the buds obovoid, the entire bud resinous, otherwise glabrous. Pedicels at anthesis deflexed, 0.8-1 cm long, tapering from a base ca. 0.75 mm diam. to the abrupt widening of the calyx tube. Flowers with the calyx tube campanulate, 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous but covered with a resinous varnish, the lobes rounded-deltoid, 1-1.5 mm long, covered with the same resinous material as the tube, minutely papillose at the tips; corolla white or purplish, 1.5-2 cm diam., lobed ca. 3/4 of the way to the base, the lobes planar at anthesis, the tips and margins of the lobes minutely papillose; anthers 4.5-5 x 1-1.5 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores teardrop shaped; free portion of the filaments 0.1-0.25 mm long, the filament tube 0.5-0.6 mm long; ovary glabrous; style straight, 6-7 mm long; stigma bilobed, the surface minutely papillose. Fruit a globose berry, apiculate with the persistent style base, green, ca. 1 cm diam,; fruiting pedicels woody, erect or slightly deflexed, ca. 2 cm long, 0.5-1 mm diam. at the base. Seeds tan, flattened-reni-form, ca. 2 x 1 mm, the surfaces minutely pitted, the margins incrassate. Chromosome number not known.

Discussion

Solanum lindenii is closely related to S. oblongum but differs from that species in its resinous new growth and inflorescences, and in its indument (when present) of mostly branched trichomes. These two species both have fleshy flowers with the petals planar at anthesis, globose, fleshy buds, berries borne on erect fruiting pedicels, and tiny, flattened seeds.

Distribution

On the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia, 1500-3000 m, in forest or secondary growth.

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