Solanum boldoense Dunal & A.DC., 1852

Knapp, Sandra, 2013, A revision of the Dulcamaroid Clade of Solanum L. (Solanaceae), PhytoKeys 22, pp. 1-432 : 71-75

8. Solanum boldoense Dunal & A.DC. , Prodr. [A.P. de Candolle] 13(1): 679 1852 Figure 22

Solanum cardiophyllum Dunal, Prodr. [A.P. de Candolle] 13(1): 89. 1852, non Solanum cardiophyllum Lindl., 1848. Type: Cuba. Havana: "in Havana", B.M. Boldo s.n. (holotype: MPU).

Solanum scandens Sessé & Moc., Fl. Mexic., ed. 2, 53. 1894. Type: Cuba. Sin. loc., Sessé & Mociño s.n. (lectotype, designated by Knapp 2008b, pg. 20: MA [MA-604676, F neg. 48318]; isolectotype: MA [MA-604675, F neg. 48343, 5381, upper frag. in photo, sheet now divided]).

Type:

Based on Solanum cardiophyllum Dunal, non Solanum cardiophyllum Lindl., 1848.

Description.

Woody vining shrub or liana. Stems flexuous, glabrous; new growth minutely pubescent, the trichomes ca. 0.4 mm, simple, uniseriate, later glabrous. Bark of older stems dark reddish brown. Sympodial units plurifoliate. Leaves simple or occasionally very shallowly 3-lobed, 4.5-7 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, ovate to cordate or narrowly cordate, glabrous on both surfaces or with a few minute uniseriate simple trichomes along the midrib above; primary veins 5-7 pairs, drying reddish; base cordate or truncate and oblique; margins entire; apex acuminate; petioles 2.3-3.5 cm long, glabrous, twisting to aid in climbing up supports. Inflorescences leaf-opposed or terminal, 10-30 cm long, ovoid to ellipsoid in overall shape, branching to 5 times, with 50-100 flowers, glabrous; peduncle 1.5-9 cm long, glabrous; pedicels slender, 1.2-1.7 cm long, ca. 0.5 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the apex, nodding, glabrous, articulated in distal quarter just below the calyx tube leaving an elongate peg, occasionally articulated in the basal half of the pedicel, but always leaving a distinct remnant; pedicel scars widely spaced ca. 1 cm apart, appearing as a series of elongate pegs due to articulation point. Buds globose and somewhat inflated, the corolla strongly exserted from the calyx tube. Flowers all perfect, 5-merous. Calyx tube 3.5-4 mm long (to articulation), the upper part 2-2.5 mm long atop a conical receptacle-like structure, the lobes absent or mere undulations on the rim of the tube, glabrous. Corolla 2-2.3 cm in diameter, purple or violet, stellate, lobed ca. 3/4 of the way to the base, the lobes 0.8-1 mm wide, 0.4-0.6 cm wide, planar (or slightly cupped?) at anthesis, glabrous, the margins and cucullate tips densely papillose. Filament tube <0.1 mm, glabrous; free portion of the filaments ca. 0.75 mm long; anthers 4-4.5 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, stout, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age. Ovary conical, glabrous; style 0.8-0.9 cm long, glabrous, the stigma capitate, the surface minutely papillose. Fruit a globose berry, 1-1.2 cm in diameter, red when ripe, the pericarp thin and shiny; fruiting pedicels 1.1-1.3 cm long, ca. 0.5 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the apex, not particularly woody, deflexed, the basal portion of the calyx tube expanding in fruit to be clearly differentiated above the articulation point, appearing somewhat swollen. Seeds ca. 10 per berry, 3-3.5 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, flattened reniform, pale brown, the surfaces minutely pitted, the testal cells sinuate in outline. Chromosome number: not known.

Distribution

( Figure 23 ). Known only from Cuba and a single collection from Haiti, at low to middle elevations. Several very old single collections seen from Jamaica (K000196458) and Puerto Rico ( Plée s.n., P00549340) may mislabelled as to locality or from cultivated plants.

Ecology.

A relatively rare plant in forests and along forest edges.

Conservation status.

Possible Near Threatened (possible NT); EOO <100,000 km2 (possible NT) and AOO <100,000 km2 (LC). See Moat (2007) for explanation of measurements.

Discussion.

Solanum boldoense is very similar to, and has been confused with (see below), Solanum dulcamaroides of Mexico. The pedicel articulation point serves to easily distinguish the two species: in Solanum boldoense it is the distal quarter of the length and long pegs are left when flowers fall, while in Solanum dulcamaroides the pedicel articulates at or very near the base.

Dunal used the name Solanum cardiophyllum for this species, but before publication realised it had already been used by Lindley for a species of potato. His replacement name is based on the same type, collected by B.M. Boldo near Havana.

Considerable confusion exists over the use of the epithet “scandens” in Sessé and Mociño’s works, but it is clear that on page 53 of Flora Mexicana, they were using Solanum scandens in the sense of a new name, different from that of Solanum scandens L., which they re-named Solanum nutans . The specimen (MA-604676) labelled "S.scandens IC." in the Sessé and Mociño herbarium at MA with the locality "Hava. et Queretaro" demonstrates the confusion over the identity of all these plants. MA-604676 is a specimen of Solanum boldoense , suggesting [confirming?] the localities were added to the labels and the labels to the specimens after the fact, and that botanists in Madrid were not treating these two species are different. Another sheet of the same plant, MA-604675, appears to be from the same gathering. The “IC.” referred to on the label of MA-604676 may be plate 6331.1503 of the Torner Collection, that was used by Dunal to describe Solanum dulcamaroides (see discussion below). The plate is only partly finished and could be either species, but the pedicel articulation near the rhachis suggests it is Solanum dulcamaroides ; epitype material is selected in the treatment of Solanum dulcamaroides to fix the usage this name.

Specimens examined.

Cuba. Havana: Havana, Delessert s.n. (G); Havana, 1841, Karwinski s.n. (LE); Las Tunas: In Cuba Orientali [note on US sheet - "fl. purple, Cliffs, Rio Sta. Cruz, July"], 1856, Wright 381 (G, G, GH, GOET, K, LE, MO, S, US); Las Villas: Gavinas, Trinidad Mountains, San Blas-Buenos Aires, 18 Sep 1941, Gonzales 177 (GH); Pinar del Río: San Diego de los Baños, 31 Aug 1910, Britton et al. 6674 (F, US); La Palma, Pan de Guajaibón, trail on or near summit of Pan de Guajaibón, 700 m, 20 Dec 2008, Clark et al. 10597 (BM); San Cristobal, Loma del Pimiento, 29 Sep 1920, Ekman s.n. (S); on the road between Mameyar and El Toro, 14 Sep 1923, Ekman 17544 (S); Santa Cruz de los Pinos, vicinity of Taco-Taco River, 29 Oct 1925, Brother León 12543 (GH); Santa Clara: Las Lagunas, Buenos Aires, 762 m, 5 Dec 1928, Jack 6823 (A).

Haiti. La Hotte, between La Cueva and Placer Bonita, 1067 m, 1 Aug 1950, Howard 12255 (GH).

Jamaica. Sin. loc, Anonymous s.n. (K, LE).

Puerto Rico. "Antilles. Porto Rico", Plée s.n. (P).

Figures

Figure 22. Solanum boldoense Dunal & A. DC. (A-G drawn from Clark 10597 and J. Clark photographs taken in the field H drawn from Wright 381, NY). Illustration by Bobbi Angell.

Figure 23. Distribution of Solanum boldoense Dunal & A. DC.