Solanum caelicolum
Not known.
Solanum caelicolum inhabits the understory or shaded forest edges of well-preserved fragments of the Brazilian Atlantic coastal rainforest, and is known only from Espírito Santo state from 150 to 850 m. Despite the fact that the type collection was from an outcrop, the species is believed to inhabit only shaded environments and the reference might be to a granitic boulder in the forest understory, a common situation in Espírito Santo forests.
Giacomin, L.L., J.R. Stehmann & L. Bohs. 2013. Two new species from the Brevantherum clade of Solanum (Solanaceae) from Eastern Brazil. Journal of the Botancial Reserach Institute of Texas 75: 95-107.
Endangered B1 a,b (i, ii, iii). Solanum caelicolum is known from four localities very close to each other in the state of Espírito Santo, and its calculated extent of occurrence using the MCP is 31 km2. At the municipality of Santa Teresa, the locality of three of the collections, there still are several well preserved forest remnants, some of them within protected reserves. One of the collections was found at a city reserve (Estação Biológica de São Lourenço) and therefore we are not treating this species as critically endangered. The populations from further north in the Colatina region are more susceptible to changes in the species area of occupancy due to urban expansion and farming.
Solanum caelicolum resembles S. hirtellum, sharing with it a similar habit and stem indument, leading to misidentifications of collections from Espírito Santo state in the past. It can be distinguished by its elliptic leaves, not ovate like those of S. hirtellum, that are glabrescent and usually drying dark adaxially (normally moderately pubescent and pale green in S. hirtellum), abaxially drying somewhat gray to pale green due to the conspicuous indument (normally inconspicuously pubescent and pale green in S. hirtellum). The adaxial leaf trichomes are also distinct from those of S. hirtellum. While S. caelicolum has porrect-stellate trichomes with a very reduced midpoint (central ray; Fig. 2H in Giacomin et al. 2013), S. hirtellum mostly has stellae with the central ray sometimes multicellular and longer than the lateral rays on the upper leaf surfaces. Some variation in trichome morphology occurs in S. hirtellum, but at least some of the hairs of the adaxial leaf surfaces have a central ray longer than the lateral ones. Solanum caelicolum also has a distinctive sessile to subsessile congested and unbranched inflorescence (Fig. 3F in Giacomin et al. 2013) with the pedicels arising very close to each other (the rachis almost absent), whereas the inflorescence in S. hirtellum is mainly pedunculate, few- to many-branched, and lax, with the pedicels arising up to 0.5 cm from each other. Pedicel size can also be used to distinguish both species; they are up to 8 mm long in S. caelicolum and frequently exceed 8 mm in S. hirtellum. Another good character to distinguish the two species is the size of the fruiting calyx lobes. In S. caelicolum the calyx lobes are larger than the diameter of the mature berry, whereas in S. hirtellum the calyx lobes are shorter than the mature berry.
Both species are known from Espírito Santo state, but they apparently do not co-occur. While S. caelicolum seems to be restricted to north-central Espírito Santo, S. hirtellum has a much broader distribution, extending from northeast Argentina and Paraguay and reaching its northernmost limit in the south of Espírito Santo.