Knapp, Sandra D. 2002.
Solanaceae
Pseudocapsicum, Pheliandra
Genus Description - Trees or shrubs, occasionally rhizomatous, 1-20 m tall; pubescence of papillate or uniseriate simple or branched trichomes, the trichomes occasionally multiseriate at the base or echinoid. Sympodial units most often difoliate, in some species unifoliate or plurifoliate. Leaves geminate or not, linear to obovate, variable in size within a species, usually glabrous above, glabrous or pubescent with uniseriate trichomes beneath, the trichomes simple or branched, in a few species echinoid; minor leaves, if present, either equal in size and shape to the major ones or strongly anisophyllous. Inflorescences usually opposite the leaves, occasionally somewhat internodal or pseudoterminal, filiform to stout, simple to many-times furcate, papillate or pubescent with usually uniseriate trichomes like those of the leaves, the trichomes simple or branched, usually small; pedicels at anthesis white or greenish-white, usually deflexed; buds globose to elliptic, variously pubescent; calyx tube urceolate to broadly conical, the lobes minutely deltoid or long-triangular and acuminate; corolla white, greenish-white, occasionally pink or tinged with purple, 0.4-3.5 cm in diameter, fleshy to membranous, lobed from 1/2 of the way to the base to nearly to the base, the lobes campanulate, planar, or deflexed at anthesis, the tips and margins of the lobes usually densely papillate; anthers elliptic to ovoid, yellow or orangish yellow, not terminally attenuate, all anthers poricidal at the tips, the pores becoming slit-like upon drying and teardrop shaped in all but two species with dimorphic anthers (Solanum pseudoquina and S. reitzii); free portion of the filaments more or less equal to the filament tube; ovary glabrous or pubescent with papillate or uniseriate trichomes; style straight, glabrous or minutely puberulent at the base, usually equal to the length of the corolla lobes in long-styled flowers, included in the anther cone in short-styled flowers; stigma capitate or more often restricted to the unexpanded tip of the style. Berries globose or somewhat ellipsoid and apically pointed, bilocular, usually green or yellowish green at maturity, in some species (i.e., S. pseudocapsicum species group) brightly colored orange or reddish; fruiting pedicels erect to de-flexed and greatly elongate, usually thicker at the apex; seeds flattened-reniform with incrassate margins and lignified lateral seed coat walls or ovoid-reniform with non-thickened lateral seed coat walls, the surfaces minutely pitted. Chromosome number: n= 12 (in all but S. spirale from the Old World tropics, where n = 24).
The section is treated here in the broad sense, including all species with simple and branched trichomes. Further discussion relating to the utility of trichome characters in the taxonomy of this group will be found in Morphology. Species are here keyed to species groups and within each group to species. As many of the species of sect. Geminata are remarkably similar in morphology, I have provided a synoptic, multi-access key to all the taxa. The synoptic key will be most useful for those specimens in only flower or fruit, and vegetative material should be identifiable to broad groups using the synoptic key.
I have attempted to correctly typify all the species treated in this monograph. I have strictly followed guidelines laid down in th q International Code for Botanical Nomenclature (Greuter et al., 1994) for the interpretation of types. I have only regarded a specimen as a holotype if it was specifically and unambiguously designated as such by the original author, or if a single specimen from a single herbarium was cited in the original description. If a single specimen was not designated, I have designated a lectotype from among the extant duplicates or syntypes. If a lectotype was previously designated, I have cited its place of publication. Notes on lectotypifications can be found in the individual species accounts. Both M.-F. Dunal at MPU and later J. F. MacBride at F received small fragments of type specimens for inclusion in their respective herbaria. I have cited these fragments among the isotypes where they occur and have indicated them as fragmentary (frag.). Where the fragment is more than just a leaf and a flower and could be classed as an entire specimen, it is cited as an isotype.
Species groups are listed in an arbitrary order, but those groups with flattened-reniform seeds (the plesiomorphic state in Solanum) are groups I through VI, and those with ovoid-reniform seeds (the derived state) are VII through XVI (see Numerical List of Taxa). Within each species group the species are listed in alphabetical order. Species are numbered consecutively throughout the monograph. All specimens cited in the monograph have been seen by the author except when designated "n.v.," including types. Not all specimens examined during the course of this treatment (more than 7000 collections of approximately 2000 collectors) have been cited in the text, but all are listed in the Exsiccatae. For widespread species particularly, only representative specimens are cited in the species treatments. For rarer or less well-known taxa, however, all specimens examined are cited in full. Several of the species of sect. Geminata are widely cultivated in both the tropics and subtropics and I have not cited obviously cultivated specimens, unless they were the only record from a particular neotropical country. Lists are given of cultivated ranges for those commonly cultivated taxa (S. diphyllum, S. pseudocapsicum).
Maps were prepared using the Flora Neotropica Base Map No. 1, where each symbol in a degree square indicates that the species occurs in that degree square.