Solanum L.

Knapp, Sandra, 2013, A revision of the Dulcamaroid Clade of Solanum L. (Solanaceae), PhytoKeys 22, pp. 1-432 : 22

Solanum L. , Sp. pl. 184. 1753.

Lectotype species

designated by Henderson 1974: Solanum nigrum L. [I accept here the generic synonymy of D’Arcy (1972, 1974) with the addition of Amatula Moench, Cyphomandra Sendtn., Lycopersicon Mill., Normania Lowe, and Triguera Cav.].

Description.

Herbs, shrubs, trees, or vines, with or without prickles, glabrous or pubescent with unbranched or branched (including stellate), often glandular hairs. Leaves alternate or paired and frequently unequal in size, simple to pinnately lobed or compound, petiolate or sessile, without stipules, but sometimes with “pseudostipules” (Potato clade). Inflorescences cymose, branched or unbranched. Flowers usually perfect, (4-) 5-merous, actinomorphic or zygomorphic; calyx campanulate, sometimes accrescent in fruit, corolla rotate, campanulate, stellate, or urceolate, white, green, yellow, pink, or purple; stamens equal or unequal, the filaments generally short and inserted at the corolla base, the anthers basifixed, equal or unequal, blunt or tapered toward apex, opening by terminal pores, these sometimes expanding into longitudinal slits, or introrsely longitudinally dehiscent with age in sect. Lycopersicon ; ovary 2-carpellate; ovules many; style articulated at base or above the base, usually slender; stigma capitate to elongate-clavate. Fruit a berry, usually fleshy but occasionally dry, usually many-seeded, the seeds often flattened; embryo curved, embedded in abundant endosperm. Chromosome number: n = 12, 23, 24, 48.

Discussion.

The generic description applies to Solanum including all those genera traditionally segregated from it: Cyphomandra (Bohs 1995), Lycopersicon ( Spooner et al. 1993; Peralta et al. 2008), Normania , and Triguera ( Bohs and Olmstead 2001). Data from chloroplast DNA sequences strongly support the inclusion of these segregates in a monophyletic Solanum ( Bohs 2005). Some workers (e.g., Hunziker 2001) maintain these taxa as distinct genera.