Solanum anisophyllum
Citation:
Observ. bot. 52. 1870.
Type:
Peru. San Martín: in Peruviae orientali, prope Tarapoto, in montibus secus flumen Mayo, Spruce 4830 (lectotype, G-DC, designated by Knapp, 2002; isolectotypes AWH, BM, C [F neg. 22874], G [Morton neg. 8503], K, NY, P [Morton neg. 8146]).
Last edited by:
Knapp, S.
Written by:
Knapp, S.
Habit:
Shrubs or small trees, 2-4 m tall; young stems and leaves minutely rusty-papillose; older stems glabrous; bark grey, large white-lenticellate.
Sympodial structure:
Sympodial units difoliate, geminate, strongly anisophyllous.
Leaves:
Leaves strongly anisomorphic, glabrous on both surfaces; major leaves elliptic, widest at the middle, 12.6-20.8 x 4.6-9.3 cm, with 5-10 pairs of main lateral veins, raised both above and beneath, the apex acuminate, the base acute to rounded, slightly winged on the petiole; petioles 0.9-2 cm long; minor leaves orbicular, 2-5 x 1.9-4.1 cm, the apex acute or obtuse, apiculate, the base broadly rounded or cordate; petioles 1-4 mm long.
Inflorescences:
Inflorescences opposite the leaves, simple, 0.3-1.5 cm long, 5-20-flowered, glabrous except for the rusty-papillose distal tips and very young buds; pedicel scars evenly spaced ca. 0.5 mm apart, beginning ca. 8 mm from the base of the inflorescence. Buds ovoid, rusty-papillose, the calyx lobes long-acuminate in bud, so that the bud appears pointed, completely enclosing the corolla. Pedicels at anthesis deflexed, 1-1.4 cm long, tapering from the calyx tube to a slender base ca. 0.5 mm in diam.
Flowers:
Flowers with the calyx tube 1-1.5 mm long, the lobes long-triangular to deltoid, 0.5-3 mm long, glabrous, the margins of the sinuses white and thickened; corolla white, ca. 1.8 cm in diam., lobed nearly to the base, the lobes reflexed at anthesis, the tips and backs of the lobes minutely papillose; anthers 3-4 x ca. 1.5 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores tear-drop shaped; free portion of the filaments ca. 0.25 mm long, the filament tube ca. 0.5 mm long; ovary glabrous; style straight, slightly clavate, ca. 7 mm long; stigma a minutely papillose area on the tip of the club.
Fruits:
Fruit a globose, green berry, umbonate when immature, 1.1-1.8 cm in diam.; fruiting pedicels woody, erect, 1.8-2.3 cm, 0.75-1 mm in diam. at the base; calyx lobes erect and woody in fruit, 3-4 mm long.
Seeds:
Seeds unknown.
Distribution:
In Amazonian Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil, in wet forests often growing near streams on rocky ground.
Phylogeny:
Solanum anisophyllum is a member of the Solanum arboreum species group (Knapp, 2002) in the Geminata clade (Bohs, 2005).
References:
Knapp, S. 2002. Solanum section Geminata (G. Don) Walpers (Solanaceae).
Flora Neotropica 84: 1-405.
Bohs, L. 2005. Major clades in Solanum based on ndhF sequences.
Pp. 27-49 in R. C. Keating, V. C. Hollowell, & T. B. Croat (eds.), A festschrift for William G. D’Arcy: the legacy of a taxonomist. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 104. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.
Solanum anisophyllum is related to S. arboreum, and differs from it in its long-acuminate calyx lobes and smaller flowers. The long-acuminate calyx lobes are superficially similar to those of S. tanysepalum from montane coastal Venezuela. The two species are not closely related within the group and can be easily distinguished by other characters. Solanum anisophyllum has elongate inflorescences with small flowers and closely spaced pedicel scars and orbiculate minor leaves, whereas S. tanysepalum has sessile inflorescences with larger, fleshy flowers and elliptic minor leaves.
Solanum anisophyllum is a shrub of primary forest and is a sparse species (Rabinowitz, 1981) with few individuals in any given population.
I have selected the specimen at G as the lectotype of S. anisophyllum as the Morton photograph (see above) of it is widely distributed and it was one of two (the other at AWH) cited in the original description.