Solanum lidii
2n = ploidy missing =24 voucher: Anderson & Santos-Guerra 4801 (CONN,ORT) (Chiarini et al. 2006)
Only known from the island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) near Temisas in xeric areas on S and W facing slopes at 600-900 m elevation. Soils in the Temisas area are derived from Miocene ultrabasic lava and tuff (King, 1982).
Solanum lidii is a member of the Old World group of the Leptostemonum clade (sensu Levin et al., 2006), where it appears to be closely related to the other Canary Island endemic prickly solanum species, S. vespertilio.
King, C. 1982. Solanum lidii.
Bot. Mag. 184: 13-15, tab. 840.
Levin, R.A., N.R. Myers, & L. Bohs 2006. Phylogenetic relationships among the "spiny" solanums (Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum).
Amer. J. Bot. 93: 157-169.
Bramwell, D. 2006. Medicinal plants of the Canary Islands.
Medicinal Plant Conservation 12: 36-40
Chiarini, F., G. Bernardello, G. Anderson, & A. Santos Guerra 2006. Chromosomal differentiation of Solanum vespertilio and S. lidii (Solanaceae), rare, endemic species of the Canary Islands (Spain).
Caryologia 59: 277-283.
Anderson, G.J., G. Bernardello, L. Bohs, T. Weese & A. Santos-Guerra 2006. Phylogeny and biogeography of the Canarian Solanum vespertilio and S. lidii (Solanaceae).
Anales del Jardin Botanico de Madrid. 63(2): 159-167.
Solanum lidii is a striking species, with its deep purple, highly zygomorphic flowers and orange fruits when ripe. It is easily distinguished from S. vespertilio, the only other prickly solanum with zygomorphic flowers in the Canary Islands, by its narrow, rather than broadly ovate, leaves, its darker purple flowers (see Figure 1 in Anderson et al., 2006), and its orange, rather than red berry. The two species also differ in habitat, with S. vespertilio occurring in relictual laurel forests and S. lidii occurring on dry, rocky slopes. Solanum lidii occasionally has 4-merous flowers, while it seems that almost all populations of S. vespertilio are 4-merous.
Whalen (1984) suggested that S. lidii and S. vespertilio were closely related to the morphologically very similar zygomorphic flowered solanum of the New World, S. houstonii (as S. tridynamum). Recent molecular studies have shown that these two Canary Island species are more closely related to solanums of the African mainland (Anderson et al., 2006; Levin et al., 2006), although sampling from amongst this diverse group was not broad enough to pin down their true relationships.
Solanum lidii is known from less than ten scattered populations on southern Gran Canaria (Bramwell, 2006) the largest of which has less than 50 individuals. The berries were formerly steeped in red wine and used as a tranquiliser and antispasmodic (Bramwell, 2006). Despite its rarity and restricted distribution, S. lidii is not listed in the IUCN Red Book of Endangered Species. A preliminary conservation status would be EN or possibly CR, based on small population size, threat from human disturbance and island endemism. The species has legal protection under the EU Habitats Directive, the Bern Convention and under Spanish law (Bramwell, 2006).