Citation:
Agronomía (Lima) 27: 365. 1960.
Type:
Peru. Piura: Huancabamba, Cienago Largo, descending from Cuello del Indio pass to Huancabamba, 3180 m, 5 May 1960, C. Ochoa 2321 (holotype, CUZ; isotype, US00345009).
Habit:
Herbs 0.15-0.75 m tall, erect, sometimes with a rosette habit. Stems 1-7 mm in diameter at base of plant, purple to purple and green mottled, unwinged, glabrous; tubers typically moniliform (multiple tubers arranged along the stolon like beads on a necklace).
Sympodial structure:
Sympodial units tri- to plurifoliate, not geminate.
Leaves:
Leaves odd-pinnate, the blades 5.6-12.3 x 1.9-6.6 cm, dark green adaxially, light green with a purple coloration on the veins or completely purple abaxially, coriaceous, glabrous adaxially and abaxially; lateral leaflet pairs 0-2, decreasing in size toward the leaf base, with the terminal leaflet considerably larger than the laterals; most distal lateral leaflets 0.9-3.6 x 0.5-1.2 cm, ovate to elliptic, the apex acute, the base typically petiolulate and attenuate to rounded, usually symmetric but sometimes asymmetric with more tissue on the basiscopic side; terminal leaflet 3.4-7.5 x 2-2.7 cm, ovate to elliptic, the apex acute, the base attenuate; interjected leaflets 0-2, usually sessile, ovate to orbicular; petioles 1.4-2.1 cm, glabrous. Pseudostipules 2-6 mm long, glabrous.
Inflorescences:
Inflorescences 6-15 cm, terminal with a subtending axillary bud, generally in distal half of the plant, usually forked, with 4-22 flowers, with all flowers apparently perfect, the axes glabrous; peduncle 0.7-9.5 cm long; pedicels 15-61 mm long in flower and fruit, spaced 3-5 mm apart, articulated at or slightly above the middle.
Flowers:
Flowers homostylous, 5-merous. Calyx 5-8 mm long, the tube 2-4 mm, the lobes 1-3 mm, usually ovate to lanceolate, with linear acumens 1-4 mm long, glabrous. Corolla 2.4-5.6 cm in diameter, pentagonal to rotate, white to lilac to light blue, the tube 1-2 mm long, the acumens 2-3 mm long, the corolla edges flat, not folded dorsally, glabrous abaxially and adaxially. Stamens with the filaments 1-2 mm long; anthers 4-7 mm long, lanceolate, connivent, yellow, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age. Ovary glabrous; style 3-10 mm x ca. 1 mm, exceeding stamens by 1-6 mm, straight, glabrous; stigma clavate to capitate.
Fruits:
Fruit an ovoid berry, 0.9-2.5 cm wide, 1-2.5 mm long, medium to deep green with white spots when ripe, glabrous.
Seeds:
Seeds from living specimens ovoid and ca. 2 mm long, whitish to greenish in fresh condition and drying brownish, with a thick covering of “hair-like” lateral walls of the testal cells that make the seeds mucilaginous when wet, green-white throughout; testal cells honeycomb-shaped when lateral walls removed by enzyme digestion.
Phenology:
Flowering and fruiting from February to May.
Solanum paucissectum is similar to S. chilliasense of Ecuador. Both species have glabrous and coriaceous leaves and a terminal leaflet considerably larger than the lateral leaflets. However, they differ because S. chilliasense has leaflets acuminate at the tips and undulate margins whereas S. paucissectum has acute leaflet tips and entire leaflet margins.