Solanum mapiricum
Citation:
Brittonia 38: 299. 1986.
Type:
Bolivia. La Paz: Prov. Larecaja, Tuiri, near Mapiri on left bank of Río Mapiri, 490-750 m, 12-30 Sep 1939, Krukoff 10898 (holotype, US; isotypes, F, K, MO, NY, U).
Last edited by:
Knapp, S.
Written by:
Knapp, S.
Habit:
Shrubs or small trees 2-6 m tall; young stems and leaves glabrous or minutely white-papillose; bark of older stems deep shiny maroon, becoming greyish on much larger stems.
Sympodial structure:
Sympodial units usually unifoliate.
Leaves:
Leaves elliptic to narrowly elliptic, widest at the middle, glabrous above, drying pale green, pubescent with tufts of uniseriate trichomes 0.1-0.5 mm long in the axils of the main lateral veins beneath, these trichomes sparse and from the veins, not the lamina, the leaves 4-11 cm long, 1.5-3.5 cm wide, with 7-10 pairs of main lateral veins, these not prominent, often yellowish and shiny beneath, the apex acute to acuminate, the base acute to obtuse; petioles 3-7 mm long.
Inflorescences:
Inflorescences opposite the leaves, occasionally somewhat internodal, simple, 0.2-1.1 cm long, 5-7-flowered, glabrous except for the buds; pedicel scars closely spaced, overlapping or with the edges just meeting, beginning near the base of the inflorescence. Pedicels at anthesis ca. 1 mm long, deflexed, tapering from the calyx tube to a slender base ca. 0.25 mm in diam. Buds globose, densely to sparsely pubescent with white uniseriate trichomes ca. 0.25 mm long, later elliptic with the exsertion of the corolla.
Flowers:
Flowers with the calyx tube cup-shaped, ca. 1 mm long, densely to sparsely pubescent with uniseriate trichomes, the lobes deltoid, 0.5-1 mm long, pubescent with the same trichomes as the calyx tube; corolla white, 1-1.2 cm in diam., lobed ca. 3/4 of the way to the base, the lobes reflexed at anthesis, the tips and margins of the lobes minutely papillose occasionally with a few uniseriate trichomes; anthers ca. 3 mm long, 1 m wide, poricidal at the tips, the terminal 0.5 mm paler and thickened, the pores becoming slit-like upon drying; free portion of the filaments minute, 0-0.1 mm long, the filament tube 0.5-1 mm long; ovary glabrous; style straight, 6-7 mm long; stigma capitate, bi-lobed, the surface minutely papillose.
Fruits:
Fruit a globose berry, 6-8 mm in diam. (immature), green; fruiting pedicels woody, slender and erect, 1.5-1.7 cm long, ca. 0.75 mm in diam. at the base.
Seeds:
Seeds not known from mature fruit.
Chromosome number:
Not known
Distribution:
All collections are from the region of Mapiri, in the lowlands of northern Bolivia, from 400-800 m elevation.
Phylogeny:
Solanum mapiricum belongs to the Geminata clade (sensu Bohs, 2005), but is of uncertain species group (Knapp, 2002) membership.
References:
Knapp, S. 2002. Solanum section Geminata (G. Don) Walpers (Solanaceae).
Flora Neotropica 84: 1-405.
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 mapiricum is very similar to both S. daphnophyllum and S. symmetricum, also of Bolivia. It differs from S. daphnophyllum in its pubescent vein axils and buds, and closely packed pedicel scars; and from S. symmetricum in its minute free portion of the filaments, small flowers, pubescent buds, and elongate flowering axis. This may also be an extreme range extension of the otherwise more Atlantic S. campaniforme. The affinities of this rare species are not clear at present; more collections and detailed field notes concerning habit and habitat are needed.