Lycianthes (Dunal) Hassl., Annuaire Conserv. Jard. Bot. Geneve 20: 180. 1917. Nom. conserv.

Dean, Ellen, Poore, Jennifer, Anguiano-Constante, Marco Antonio, Nee, Michael H., Kang, Hannah, Starbuck, Thomas, Rodrigues, Annamarie & Conner, Matthew, 2020, The genus Lycianthes (Solanaceae, Capsiceae) in Mexico and Guatemala, PhytoKeys 168, pp. 1-333 : 1

Lycianthes (Dunal) Hassl., Annuaire Conserv. Jard. Bot. Geneve 20: 180. 1917. Nom. conserv.

Otilix Raf., Medical Fl. 2: 87. 1830. Nom. rej. Type: Solanum lycioides L.

Solanum subsect. Lycianthes Dunal, Prodr. [A. P. de Candolle] 13(1): 29. 1852. Type: Solanum lycioides L. (designated by D’Arcy 1972, pg. 211)

Parascopolia Baill., Hist. Pl. 9: 338. 1888. Nom. rej. Type: P. acapulcensis Baill.

Solanum sect. Lycianthes (Dunal) Wettst., Nat. Pflanzenfam. 4(3b): 22. 1891. Type: Based on Solanum subsect. Lycianthes Dunal

Solanum subgenus Lycianthes (Dunal) Bitter, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 54: 424. 1917. Type: Based on Solanum subsect. Lycianthes Dunal

Type.

Based on Solanum subsect. Lycianthes Dunal

Description.

Perennial herbs (from stolons, rhizomes, or tuberous roots), shrubs, or vines, sometimes epiphytic. Pubescence of glandular or eglandular, simple, dendritic, or stellate trichomes. Stems with sympodial growth. Leaves alternate, geminate, or solitary, simple, usually entire, usually petiolate, the base often unequal, the leaf pairs sometimes anysophyllous. Inflorescences axillary, the peduncles very short or absent, with one to many pedicelled flowers; calyx with truncate rim, often enlarging in fruit, 10-nerved, often with five to ten (25) appendages protruding from the calyx below the margin; corolla with five lobes, the lobes often connected by interpetalar tissue, the shape entire to stellate, opening and closing daily for several days in a row (sometimes opening only in the very early morning), campanulate, rotate or reflexed when open, white to purple or blue; stamens inserted near the base of the corolla, the filaments equal or not, the anthers free, connivent, or connate, dehiscing by pores (rarely lengthwise); pistil 2-carpellate, ovary spherical, ovoid, or conical, style straight or curved, stigma capitate to oblong, entire to lobed, ovules usually numerous; fruit a berry, round to ovoid, the exocarp purple, red, orange, yellow, or green, some species with sclerotic granules in the outer part of the mesocarp; seeds usually numerous, lenticular compressed to round or angular in outline, tan, yellow, orange, brown or black.

Discussion.

Genus name based on the type species Solanum lycioides , named, presumably, for its thorny branches that resemble the genus Lycium L., which was first described from Lycia, in what is now Turkey.