Solanum valerianum
Citation:
Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 18: 1097. 1938.
Type:
Costa Rica. Puntarenas: Playa Blanca, Golfo Dulce, Feb 1933, Valerio 424 (holotype, F; isotype, CR).
Last edited by:
Knapp, S.
Written by:
Knapp, S.
Habit:
Shrubs 1-2 m tall; young stems and leaves densely long-pubescent with uniseriate trichomes 0.5-1 mm long, these straw-colored and curly-tipped; the stems strongly winged from the decurrent leaf bases; older stems remaining pubescent, the bark greyish-green.
Sympodial structure:
Sympodial units unifoliate, not geminate, except on non-reproductive nodes.
Leaves:
Leaves narrowly elliptic, widest at the middle, glabrous above, glabrous or long-pubescent along the veins and occasionally on the lamina beneath, the trichomes 0.5-1 mm long, the blades 9-18 x 2.5-4 cm, with 7-8 pairs of main lateral veins, these not strongly converging, not raised above, pale yellow and prominent beneath, the apex acute, the base attenuate, winged onto the petiole; petioles 0.3-1 cm long, winged from the decurrent leaf bases.
Inflorescences:
Inflorescences opposite the leaves, simple, 5-7 mm long, 3-6-flowered, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with straw-colored curly-tipped trichomes; pedicel scars widely and evenly spaced ca. 1 mm apart, slightly raised. Buds globose when young, later ellipsoid to obovoid, the corolla soon exserted from the calyx tube. Pedicels at anthesis ca. 8 mm long, filiform, tapering from the calyx tube to a slender base ca. 0.25 mm in diam.
Flowers:
Flowers with the calyx tube broadly cup-shaped, ca. 0.5 mm long, the lobes deltoid to triangular, 0.25-1.5 mm long, sparsely pubescent with uniseriate trichomes like the rest of the plant; corolla white (-), 0.8-1 cm in diam., lobed nearly to the base, the lobes perhaps reflexed at anthesis, the tips and margins of the lobes minutely papillose; anthers ca. 2 x 1 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores tear-drop shaped; free portion of the filaments ca. 0.25 mm, the filament tube minute and very short; ovary glabrous; style straight, ca. 3 mm, glabrous; stigma capitate.
Fruits:
Fruit a globose, 1-1.5 cm in diam., green; fruiting pedicels deflexed, somewhat woody, 1.8-2 cm long, 0.5-0.75 mm in diam. at the base.
Seeds:
Seeds dark brown in dry material, ovoid-reniform, 3-3.5 x 2-2.5 mm, the surfaces minutely pitted.
Chromosome number:
Not known
Distribution:
In forest and second growth in Nicaragua, W Costa Rica, and adjacent Panama, from sea level to 200 m.
Phylogeny:
Solanum valerianum is a member of the Solanum confine species group (Knapp, 2002) of the Geminata clade (Bohs, 2005).
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 valerianum is related to S. capillipes of Trinidad and Venezuela. Solanum valerianum differs from S. capillipes in its denser, longer stem pubescence, smaller inflorescences, and in its leaf venation. The main lateral veins of S. valerianum do not prominently converge on one other (ie: not markedly brochidodromous sensu Hickey, 1974) as do those of S. capillipes. The type specimen of S. valerianum is in very poor condition, with only one damaged flower on the collection. Collections from the Carara region in western Costa Rica have shorter trichomes than the type.