Solanum plowmanii S.Knapp

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Solanaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Solanum plowmanii S.Knapp

  • Type

    Type. Peru. Lambayeque: Abra de Porculla, rd. from Olmos to Pucará, km 45 E of Olmos, 1920 m, 13 July 1986, Plowman et al. 14280 (holotype, F; isotypes HUT n.v., K, MO, NY).

  • Description

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    Species Description - Shrubs or small treelets, 2-3 m tall, young stems and leaves completely glabrous, drying dark, stout and erect; older stems glabrous, the bark pale and shiny. Sympodial units difoliate, usually geminate. Leaves elliptic, widest at the middle, completely glabrous both adaxially and abaxially, slightly fleshy; major leaves 10-14.5 x 4-6.5 cm, with 10-12 pairs of main lateral veins, these drying reddish beneath, the apex acute, the base acute; petioles 1-1.5 cm long; minor leaves differing from the majors only in size, 2-5.5 x 0.8-2.2 cm, the apex acute, the base acute; petioles 3-5 mm long. Inflorescences opposite the leaves or internodal, simple, 15 cm long, 5-8-flowered, glabrous; pedicel scars closely spaced, not overlapping, clustered in the distal ½ to ¼ of the inflorescence. Buds globose, later ellipsoid, the corolla exserted from the calyx tube. Pedicels at an-thesis deflexed, 1.1-1.4 cm long, fleshy, tapering from the calyx tube to a basal diam. of ca. 1 mm. Flowers with the calyx tube conical, 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous, the lobes deltate, the margins thickened, ca. 1 mm long, glabrous; corolla white, fleshy, 1.7-2 cm diam., lobed ¾ of the way to the base, the lobes planar at anthesis, the tips 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 ca. 0.5 mm, the filament tube ca. 0.5 mm long; ovary glabrous; style erect, 6-7 mm long; stigma slightly clavate, minutely papillose. Fruit a globose, green to yellow-green berry, 1-1.5 cm diam.; fruiting pedicels woody and deflexed, ca. 1 mm diam. at the base. Seeds dark brown in dry material, tan in fresh material, ovoid-reniform, 4-4.5 x 3-3.5 mm, the surfaces minutely pitted. Chromosome number not known.

  • Discussion

    Solanum plowmanii is related to S. gratum of the Venezuelan Cordillera de la Costa. The two species share fleshy leaves that dry a rich golden brown and fleshy flowers that apparently open synchronously (see Figs. 102 A, 110). The leaf apices of both are generally rounded, an unusual condition in sect. Geminata. The flowers of S. gratum are reported to be sweetly fragrant but no such information exists for S. plowmanii.

    The isolated forests of the western slopes of the Andes in which Solanum plowmanii occurs are a very limited habitat under threat of deforestation at present (Sagástegui A. & Dillon, 1991; Dillon, 1993).

  • Distribution

    On the western slopes of the Andes in S Ecuador and N Peru, in the general area of the Huancabamba depression, remnants of dry or moist forest from 1500-3200 m.

    Ecuador South America| Loja Ecuador South America| Peru South America| Amazonas Peru South America| Cajamarca Peru South America| Lambayeque Peru South America| Piura Peru South America| Tumbes Peru South America|