Solanum pseudocapsicum
n = ploidy missing =12 voucher missing = (Gerasimenko & Reznikova 1968)
n = ploidy missing =12 voucher missing = (Randell & Symon 1976)
In drier microhabitats in Central and South America, from Mexico to southern Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, from sea level to 2600 m. Widely cultivated throughout the world, often escaped in tropical and subtropical areas.
Solanum pseudocapsicum is a member of the Solanum pseudocapsicum species group (Knapp, 2002) of the Geminata clade (Bohs, 2005).
Linnaeus, C. 1737. Hortus Cliffortianus.
(1968) Reprint, J. Cramer, Lehre, Stuttgart.
Knapp, S. 2002. Solanum section Geminata (G. Don) Walpers (Solanaceae).
Flora Neotropica 84: 1-405.
Mentz, L.A. & P.L. de Oliveira 2004. Solanum (Solanaceae) na região sul do Brasil.
Pesquisas, Bot. 54: 1-327.
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 pseudocapsicum is a widespread and extremely variable species. Cultivated forms that are generally completely glabrous have been traditionally known as S. pseudocapsicum, while native plants have gone by a variety of names. Degree of pubescence, however, is a continuous gradient throughout the native and introduced range of the species and is not a reliable character with which to differentiate taxa in this group.
Many of the numerous synonyms of Solanum pseudocapsicum are well-marked geographical variants that taken alone without consideration across the entire species range are distinct. The following are the more clearly marked of these variations.
1) Cultivated specimens are almost always completely glabrous (occasionally with a few dendritic trichomes on the new growth) and they often have large flowers and fruit. Some apparently native collections from Uruguay, near Buenos Aires, Argentina and near São Paulo, Brazil are of this general morphology. The type of Solanum pseudocapsicum was a cultivated plant collected in Madeira (see Knapp & Jarvis, 1991).
2) Plants with broadly elliptic leaves and small fruits from the province of Tucumán, Argentina have been called Solanum tucumanense.
3) Populations with very dense pubescence from high elevation Bolivia have been called Solanum validum.
4) In the dry coastal valleys of Venezuela and Colombia plants with small flowers, small fruit, and narrow leaves have been called Solanum karstenii.
5) Plants with the most common morphology, found in southern Mexico and southern Brazil, have been called Solanum diflorum. Other named populations are merely extremes from this mean.
Solanum pavimenti L.B. Smith & Downs was placed in synonymy of S. psuedocapsicum by Knapp (2002). Mentz & Oliveira (2004), however, showed clearly that it was in fact a synonym of S. n L.B.Smith & Downs, a more delicate species of souther Brazil.
The original collection of Solanum pseudocapsicum that ended up in Clifford’s garden, to be described by Linneaus (1737), probably was brought to Madeira by the early Portuguese traders. Many early introductions of Brazilian plants were effected by this route, and it seems likely that S. pseudocapsicum is another example.