Solanum mite
Not known
Throughout the Amazon basin from Colombia and the E slopes of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia to the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil, from nearly sea level to 1500 m.
Solanum mite is a member of the Solanum mite group of section Pteroidea in the Potato clade (Bohs, 2005). Based on morphology (Knapp & Helgason, 1997), S. mite is sister to S. chamaepolybotryon.
Knapp, S. & T. Helgason 1997. A revision of Solanum section Pteroidea Dunal: Solanaceae.
Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. London, Bot. 27: 31-73.
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 mite is the most common of the species of section Pteroidea, forming large thickets in treefall gaps in the primary and secondary forest and along streams and roads in partial shade. Like S. anceps, it is basically an Amazonian species, but unlike S. anceps, S. mite occurs only in the southern part of the Amazon basin, not extending far north of the N bank of the Rio Amazonas. Solanum mite is superficially similar to both S. conicum and S. uleanum, but can be differentiated easily from those species by its rounded fruit, pendant at maturity. Solanum mite can be hard to distinguish from S. conicum in flower, but the latter usually has larger flowers with the petals held planar at anthesis, while S. mite has tiny ones with strongly reflexed petals. Other differences from S. conicum are discussed with that species. Numbers of leaflets and size of leaves are extremely variable in S. mite, but leaflet shape is consistently obovate, with the terminal leaflet usually much larger and more enlarged in the distal third. The type specimen of S. pteleifolium (Martius s.n.) has ternate leaves with large, broad leaflets, There exist however a range of intermediates in both leaflet size and number: Maas et al P12838 from Acre, Brazil and Plowman et al. 6401 from near Leticia on the Colombia/Peru border approach Martius’s collection in their broader leaflets, but given the range of variability in S. mite, we prefer to take a broad concept of the species. Many of the minor variants have been described as separate species by Bitter (see synonymy), but the range of variation in S. mite as recognized here encompasses all of these.
Huge variability in leaf pubescence of collections made in the department of San Martín, Peru by Knapp in 1986, shows that pubescence density and occurrence are both quite variable within populations of S. mite. In this series of collections, made near Tarapoto, no differences in phenology or other ecological characteristics were observed, and no morphological differences other than pubescence were seen. The nature of inheritance of this character is not known, but is likely to be relatively simple.
In typifying synonyms of Solanum mite, we have selected specimens we have seen and have chosen those which are widely distributed. Bitter cited two herbaria in his original description of Solanum mite subsp. hexazygum, “herb. Buchtien” now housed at US, and “herb. Vratisl.” (either WRSL or BRA, either of which Bitter could have visited). We were not able to obtain a specimen from the latter, so have chosen to lectotypify this taxon with the US sheet. In describing S. huallagense, Bitter cited Spruce duplicates in K, BM and W. The sheet at K selected by Knapp & Helgason (1997) as the lectotype, is from the first set of Spruce’s duplicates and is annotated in Bitter’s hand. No lectotype has been selected nor neotype chosen for S. apiculatibaccatum as Bitter cited no herbarium in the original description and the only duplicate traced of Ule 9731 is a sheet at B [F neg. 2705], no longer extant.