Lycianthes peranomala (Wernham ex. Ridl.) A.R.Bean, Austrobaileya 6(3): 567. 2003.

Knapp, Sandra, 2022, A revision of Lycianthes (Solanaceae) in Australia, New Guinea, and the Pacific, PhytoKeys 209, pp. 1-134 : 1

13. Lycianthes peranomala (Wernham ex. Ridl.) A.R.Bean, Austrobaileya 6(3): 567. 2003.

Figs 40 , 41

Solanum peranomalum Wernham ex Ridl., Hooker’s Icon. Pl. 31 (pt. 3): tab. 3062. 1922. Type. Indonesia. Papua: "Mt. Carstenz [Canoe Camp on Utakwa River drainage]" [Puncak Jaya or Mount Jaya], 45 m, 5 Dec 1912, C.B. Kloss s.n. (lectotype, designated by Symon 1985, pg. 58 [as holotype]: BM [BM001014584]).

Type.

Based on Solanum peranomalum Wernham ex Ridl.

Description.

Shrub to 3 m, or a woody climber with length not recorded; stems terete, sparsely pubescent with appressed stiff antrorse simple uniseriate 1-6-celled trichomes to 1 mm long, the basal cell of each enlarged and sometimes remaining as a pustule or bump; new growth densely stiff-pubescent, the trichomes simple, uniseriate and strongly antrorse; bark of older stems brown, glabrescent, somewhat rugose and corky. Sympodial units unifoliate or difoliate, if difoliate the leaves geminate, the leaves of a pair different in size and sometimes shape. Leaves simple; blades of major leaves 9-16 cm long, 4-7 cm wide, elliptic, widest at the middle, the two sides occasionally uneven in size with the basiscopic half narrower, concolorous or somewhat discolorous, chartaceous or coriaceous; adaxial surfaces bullate (fide Takeuchi 11204), glabrous, the midrib keeled; abaxial surfaces glabrous, the veins prominent; principal veins 8-9 pairs, yellowish abaxially; base acute, oblique; margins entire; apex acuminate with an elongate drip-tip; petiole 0.7-1.1 cm long, sparsely pubescent with a few scattered stiff antrorse simple uniseriate trichomes on the adaxial surfaced and near the base; blades of minor leaves 1-2.5(4) cm long, 1-2.2 cm wide, elliptic to orbicular or heart-shaped, often apparently clasping the stem ("retrorsely directed" fide Takeuchi 11204), similar in texture and pubescent to the major leaves; base cordate or rounded; margins entire, usually revolute, sometimes markedly so; apex abruptly acute; petioles 0.1-0.2 cm long, glabrous or sometimes with a few simple trichomes like those of the stems. Inflorescences axillary fascicles of 8-10 flowers, several open at once, sparsely pubescent with stiff antrorse trichomes to 0.5 mm long like those of the stems; pedicels at anthesis 0.6-0.7 cm long, ca. 0.5 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 1.5 mm in diameter at the apex, spreading (?), white or pale purple, sparsely pubescent with stiff antrorse simple uniseriate trichomes like those of the stems, ca. 0.5 mm long; pedicel scars clustered in the leaf axils; buds ellipsoid, the corolla ca. halfway exserted from the calyx tube before anthesis. Flowers 5-merous, heterostylous and unisexual, specimens with either short-styled flowers or long-styled flowers and fruit, the plants possibly dioecious. Calyx tube 2.5-3 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, urn-shaped, the rim somewhat constricted, thick and woody (dry) or fleshy (live plants?), with no appendages, sparsely pubescent with stiff trichomes like those of the pedicels, these deciduous. Corolla 0.6-0.8 cm in diameter, purple, stellate, lobed nearly to the base, interpetalar tissue absent, the lobes 3-4 mm wide, 1.2-2 mm wide, reflexed, thick and fleshy, adaxially glabrous with a prominent ridged midvein, abaxially glabrous or sparsely papillate, densely papillate on tips and margins. Stamens equal; filament tube minute; free portion of the filaments ca. 1 mm long, glabrous; anthers 1.5-2 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, plumply ellipsoid, yellow, poricidal at the tips, the pores distally directed, circular, not elongating to slits with age. Ovary conical, glabrous; style in short-styled flowers ca. 0.5 mm long, in long-styled flowers 4-4.5 mm long, glabrous; stigma capitate or minutely bilobed, the surfaces minutely papillate. Fruit a globose berry, 0.5-0.9 cm in diameter, colour at maturity not known, the pericarp brittle in dry material, glabrous, matte, opaque, fruiting pedicels 0.5-0.8 cm long, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 1.5 mm in diameter at the apex, stiff and somewhat woody and tuberculate, spreading; fruiting calyx a cup at the base of the fruit, covering less than 1/4 of the berry, somewhat tuberculate, with a few stiff trichomes, but these usually deciduous. Seeds 10-20 per berry, ca. 2 mm long, ca. 1.5 mm wide, flattened reniform or slightly tear-shaped, reddish brown, the surfaces deeply pitted especially on the thickened margins, the testal cells pentagonal in outline. Stone cells absent. Chromosome number not known.

Distribution

(Fig. 42 ). Lycianthes peranomala is endemic to the island of New Guinea; known from Papua New Guinea (Chimbu, Madang, Oro) and Indonesia (Papua).

Ecology and habitat.

Lycianthes peranomala occurs in lowland rainforest and riverine forests, between 50 and 640 m elevation.

Common names.

None recorded.

Preliminary conservation assessment

( IUCN 2020). EOO (189,160 km2 - LC); AOO (16km2 - EN). Lycianthes peranomala is known from four localities, some of which are within protected areas. Based on EOO alone, it would merit a status of Least Concern, but given the few collections, its forest habitat and general lack of knowledge about the species, I propose a preliminary threat status of Vulnerable (VU [B2a, b(iii,iv)]) for L. peranomala .

Discussion.

Lycianthes peranomala is vegetatively similar to L. impar in its orbicular to heart-shaped minor leaves and relatively large, elliptic major leaves with prominent venation. They differ in trichome morphology, L. peranomala has sparse stiff, strongly antrorse trichomes on stems, veins near the leaf base and calyces, while those of L. impar are soft and curling and found on stems only. Inflorescences of L. impar are elongate with paired pedicel scars, while those of L. peranomala are strictly axillary.

Like Lycianthes kaernbachii and L. oliveriana the flowers of L. peranomala are usually less than 1 cm in diameter with fleshy corolla lobes lacking any interpetalar tissue and the plants are possibly dioecious with short-styled flowers and long-styled flowers (and fruit) on different plants. Lycianthes peranomala can be distinguished from those taxa in its minor leaves that are very dissimilar in shape to the major leaves; both L. kaernbachii had L. oliveriana have minor leaves that are different in size but not so strongly dissimilar in shape.

The name Solanum peranomalum was proposed by Herbert Fuller Wernham, an assistant in the Botany Department of the British Museum, for plants collected by Cecil Boden Kloss on the 1912-1913 expedition led by the ornithologist Arthur Wollaston in a second attempt to reach the high peaks of the "Snow Mountains" (Mount Jaya) in the central range ( Ridley 1916). His publication of S. peranomalum was superseded by Nicholas Ridley’s publication of the same name, with an illustration (Fig. 40 ) but a slightly different and less complete description a few months earlier. Ridley perhaps was inpatient for the Transactions to appear or had little regard for Wernham at the Museum, who had a tragic career cut short by mental health issues and alcoholism ( Stearn 1981). It is strange that neither of the two other species described by Wernham (1916) were published by Ridley ( S. ridleyanum and S. wollastonii ).

Specimens examined.

Indonesia. [type only]

Papua New Guinea. Chimbu: Crater Mountain Wildlife Management Area , Vicinity of Haia , along the Wara oo streamcourse (first river E of Mt. Widau), 640 m, 16 Sep 1996, Takeuchi 11204 (A, BM, K, L, LAE, US). Madang: Ohu Village, 100 m, 7 Aug 2008, Ctvrtecka 1644 ( US). Oro: Kokoda, 365 m, 22 Mar 1936, Carr 16195 (BM, K, NY) .

Figures

Figure 40. Lycianthes peranomala (Wernhamam ex Ridl.) A. R. Bean. Reproduced from Ridley (1922: pl. 3062, as S. peranomalum Wernham ex Ridl.). Courtesy of permission of NHM Library and Archives, reproduced with permission.

Figure 41. Lycianthes peranomala herbarium specimen. Papua New Guinea. Chimbu: Takeuchi 11204 (A). Courtesy of the Herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, reproduced with permission.

Figure 42. Distribution of Lycianthes peranomala.