Solanum seaforthianum |
Solanum novomexicanum |
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Brazilian nightshade |
New Mexico nightshade |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, spreading, sparsely to moderately armed, 0.3–0.7 m, prickles whitish or yellowish, straight, tapered, 3–8 mm, usually 20 or fewer per cm of stem, densely pubescent with stipitate-glandular hairs 0.2–0.4 mm, abaxial leaf surfaces also with scattered, sessile, 4–6-rayed, stellate hairs, central ray equal to lateral rays. | |
Leaves | petiolate; petioles twining around supports, 1–4 cm; blade simple to compound, elliptic to broadly ovate, (2–)3.5–10(–13) × (1–)2–9(–11) cm, margins entire to divided with up to 4 pairs of leaflets, leaflet margins entire, base truncate or slightly cordate. |
petiolate; petiole 2–7 cm; blade simple to compound, broadly ovate to deltate, 4–11 × 4–8 cm, margins bipinnately lobed to divided with 2–3 main leaflets per side, leaflets with obtuse or rounded lobes, base truncate. |
Inflorescences | terminal, becoming lateral, extra-axillary, much-branched, to 100+-flowered, to 25+ cm. |
extra-axillary, unbranched, 5–9-flowered, 4–10 cm. |
Pedicels | inserted into small sleeve on inflorescence axis, 0.8–1.4 cm in flower and fruit. |
1–1.5 cm in flower, erect and 1–1.5 cm in fruit. |
Flowers | radially symmetric; calyx not accrescent, unarmed, ca. 0.5 mm, nearly truncate, glabrous or sparsely pubescent on lobe tips; corolla purple, stellate, 1–2.5 cm diam., with sparse interpetalar tissue; stamens unequal due to unequal filaments; anthers ellipsoidal, 2–3 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores; ovary glabrous. |
bilaterally symmetric; calyx accrescent and tightly covering fruit, densely prickly, 4.5–6.5 mm, densely glandular-pubescent, lobes lanceolate; corolla violet or blue, pentagonal-stellate, with narrowly deltate lobes, 1–1.5 cm diam., with sparse interpetalar tissue; stamens unequal, lowermost much longer and curved; anthers narrow and tapered, dehiscent by terminal pores, short anthers 2–4 mm, longer anther 3.5–5 mm; ovary glabrous. |
Berries | bright shiny red, globose, 0.8–1.5 cm diam., glabrous, without sclerotic granules. |
brown, globose, 1–1.2 cm diam., glabrous, dry, without sclerotic granules. |
Seeds | pale yellowish tan, flattened, 4–4.5 × 2.5-3 mm, minutely pitted. |
dark brown, flattened, 2.5–3 × 2–2.5 mm, reticulately wrinkled or merely undulate. |
Climbing | or scrambling vines, woody, unarmed, to ca. 3 m, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, hairs white, unbranched, ca. 0.2 mm. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Solanum seaforthianum |
Solanum novomexicanum |
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Phenology | Flowering year-round. | Flowering Jun–Sep. |
Habitat | Disturbed sites. | Gravelly or sandy soils, open hillsides, arroyo banks, roadsides. |
Elevation | 0–200 m. (0–700 ft.) | 1900–2300 m. (6200–7500 ft.) |
Distribution |
FL; Mexico; West Indies; Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama); South America (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela) [Introduced in North America; introduced also elsewhere in South America (Argentina, Paraguay, Peru), Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands, Australia]
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NM |
Discussion | Solanum seaforthianum is widely cultivated as an ornamental and sporadically escapes in Florida. A similar species with twining petioles, S. laxum Sprengel, is occasionally cultivated in California. It is distinguished from S. seaforthianum by having tufts of hairs in the vein axils of the abaxial leaf surfaces, white rather than violet corollas, and equal stamens. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Solanum novomexicanum is uncommon and endemic to the mountains of northcentral New Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 14. | FNA vol. 14. |
Parent taxa | Solanaceae > Solanum | Solanaceae > Solanum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. heterodoxum var. novomexicanum, Androcera novomexicana | |
Name authority | Andrews: Bot. Repos. 8: plate 504. (1808) | (Bartlett) S. R. Stern: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 8: 6. (2014) |
Web links |