Solanum laciniatum
n = ploidy missing =46 voucher missing = (Baylis 1954)
New Zealand and Australia, from southeastern South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, on a variety of soil types; adventive in West Australia (fide Symon, 1981, who also considered S. laciniatum as adventive in New Zealand). In hollows in stabilized sand dunes, creek edges and roadsides in mostly mesic areas.
Solanum laciniatum is a member of the Archaeosolanum clade, a strongly supported monophyletic group in molecular analyses of using plastid DNA sequences, and is of no strong affinity with other groups of Solanum (Bohs, 1995). Symon (1981) placed S. laciniatum in series Laciniata Geras., with S. vescum and S. linearifolium. In Symon’s (1994) preliminary phylogeny based on morphology, Solanum laciniatum is sister to S. aviculare + S. multivenosum; that small group is sister to S. vescum.
Baylis, G.T.S. 1954. Chromosome number and distribution of Solanum aviculare Forst. and S. laciniatum Ait.
Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 82: 639-643.
Gerasimenko, I.I. 1971. Infraspecific variation in Solanum laciniatum Ait. (in Russian).
Rastitel’n. Resursy 7: 363-371.
Symon, D.E. 1981. A revision of Solanum in Australia.
J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 4: 1-367.
Symon, D.E. 1994. Kangaroo apples: Solanum sect. Archaesolanum.
Published by the author, Keswick, South Australia.
Brickell, C.D., B.R. Baum, W.L.A. Hetterscheid, A.C. Leslie, J. McNeill, P. Trehane, F. Vrugtman & J.H. Wiersema 2004. International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.
ISHS Acta Horticulturae 647.
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 lacinatum and S. aviculare are the two commonly cultivated species of the Archaesolanum clade; both have been used in the alkaloid industry (see Symon, 1994 for a summary) in the ex-Soviet Union, Australia and New Zealand. The two taxa are difficult to distinguish from herbarium specimens without notes on mature fruit colour; Baylis (1954) clarified their differences. Solanum aviculare is diploid, with orange or red mature fruit, and about 600 seeds per fruit; S. laciniatum is tetraploid, with green mature, and ca. 200 seeds per fruit. Solanum laciniatum may be a hybrid involving S. aviculare and/or S. vescum (Symon, 1981), but these ideas have not been tested using molecular methods.
Crosses between Solanum laciniatum have been made with the diploid species S. aviculare, S. simile, S. linearifolium and S. vescum and the tetraploid species S. symonii (summarized in Symon, 1994).
The species described as Solanum pinnatifidum by Lamarck was said to be from Peru, where no members of section Archaesolanum are known; this is surely a mis-labelling. Two specimens in the Lamarck herbarium in Paris, one of which (IDC 466/17) is labelled “Solanum pinnatifidum Lam., ill.” are clearly members of section Archaesolanum (Symon, 1994), and are potential type material. Symon (1994) did not chose a lectotype for this name, due to the ambiguity of its application to either S. lacinatum or S. vescum. He stated “In the interests of nomenclatural stability it may be best to consider S. pinnatifidum [Lam.] an obscure name but retain it associated with S. laciniatum” (Symon, 1994). Ruiz & Pavon (1799) described a Solanum pinnatifidum from coastal Peru, a member of section Regmandra. Solanum pinnatifidum Lam. Has sometimes been confused with these plants endemic to the lomas vegetation of coastal Peru and Chile, but examination of the Lamarck herbarium sheets confirms that Lamarck’s plant is a member of section Archaesolanum.
The series of forms described from cultivation in the 1970s (Gerasimenko 1971) represent minor horticultural variants in leaf shape and alkaloid content, and really ought to be treated under the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (Brickell et al., 2004).