Solanum caavurana Vell.

  • Authority

    Knapp, Sandra D. 2002. section (Solanaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 84: 1-404. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Solanaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Solanum caavurana Vell.

  • Type

    Type. Brazil. Rio de Janeiro:  Undequaque crescit, precipue sylvis excultis (No specimens extant; lectotype, Vellozo, Fl. Flumin. leones 2: fig. 11. 1831 [ 1827], here designated).

  • Synonyms

    Solanum acuminatum var. viridiflorum Dunal, Solanum fossarum Dunal, Solanum leucocarpon var. multiflorum Dunal, Bassovia richardii var. martii Dunal, Solanum caavurana f. pauciflora Chodat, Solanum anacamptorhachis Bitter, Solanum megalocarpon C.V.Morton, Solanum foetidum Ruiz & Pav.

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrubs or occasionally subshrubs 1-5 m tall; young stems and leaves glabrous; stems slender, drying dark; bark of older stems becoming paler from stretching and cracking. Sympodial units difoliate, geminate. Leaves elliptic to ovate, widest at or just proximal to the middle, glabrous above, pubescent beneath with tufts of uniseriate trichomes ca. 0.5 mm long in the axils of the main lateral veins, the leaves often drying bluish or black; major leaves 8-18.6 x 3.6-7.7 cm, with 8-9 pairs of mainlateral veins, the apex acute to rounded, this character varying geographically, the base acute, winged onto the petiole; petioles 0.7-1.2 cm long; minor leaves differing from the major ones only in size, 5-5.5 x 2.2-4 cm, the apex acute or rounded, the base acute to attenuate; petioles 5-6 mm long. Inflorescences opposite the leaves, simple, 1-4.5 m long, 5-20-flowered, glabrous or minutely glandular-papillose; pedicel scars evenly spaced ca. 1 mm apart in the upper 1/2 of the inflorescence. Buds ellipsoid to ovoid, the calyx split open just before anthesis. Pedicels at anthesis 1-1.2 cm long, tapering from the calyx to a slender base ca. 0.5 mm diam. Flowers with the calyx tube 1.5-2 mm long, broadly cupshaped, the lobes broadly triangular, 3.5-4 mm long, the margins scarious, white in dry material, the tips minutely papillose with trichomes less than 0.2 mm long; corolla white, 1.6-2 cm diam., lobed ca. 3/4 of the way to the base, the lobes planar or slightly reflexed at anthesis, the interpetalar sinuses not prominent, tips of the lobes minutely brownish-papillose; anthers ca. 4.5 x 1.5 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores teardrop shaped; free portion of the filaments ca. 0.3 mm long, the filament tube extremely short, less than 0.2 mm long; ovary glabrous; style straight, ca. 1 cm long; stigma capitate, large, minutely papillose. Fruit a globose, green or greenish-white berry, 1-1.5 cm diam.; fruiting pedicels slightly deflexed, woody, 1.2-1.7 cm long, ca. 1 mm diam. at the base; calyx lobes accrescent in fruit, woody, 5-6 mm long, scarious margined. Seeds reddish-brown, flattened-reniform, ca. 2.5 x 2 mm, the margins pale tan, incrassate, the surfaces minutely pitted. Chromosome number: n = 12 (voucher Knapp et al. 9140)

  • Discussion

    Solanum caavurana is related to S. symmetricum of eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and northwestern Argentina. Solanum caavurana differs from that species in its large, petaloid calyx lobes, more elongate inflorescences, elliptic to ovoid buds, and larger flowers. The petaloid calyx of S. caavurana is distinctive; the only other species with such large calyx lobes is S. warmingii, which is also related to S. caavurana. Solanum caavurana has tufts of trichomes in the axils of the main lateral veins of the leaf undersides, and the leaves usually dry blue-black, while S. warmingii is less pubescent (but still possesses a few axillary trichomes) and dries a pale green or yellowish color. Collections of S. caavurana from northern Bahia and Ceará do not dry as blue-black as those from other parts of the species range, and those plants also have more acute, less rounded leaf apices than plants from more southern populations. The northern populations are somewhat isolated from the main portion of the species range and are perhaps in the process of divergence. These plants have been called S. acuminatum var. viridiflorum and S. anacamptorhachis.

    Solanum caavurana is quite common in the forests of southeastern Brazil, and grows in a variety of habitats. It occasionally forms dense, foetid, monospecific thickets (K. S. Brown, pers. comm.). Vellozo (1829) stated that this species was ubiquitous, especially in second growth. He also reports several uses for S. caavurana. It was used as a soap to whiten linen, and as the source of a blue dye. The vernacular name and specific epithet refer to this latter use (Vellozo, 1829).

  • Common Names

    jurureba, caavurana, palo agui

  • Distribution

    In eastern Brazil, Argentina, and adjacent Paraguay in pluvial forest, often forming secondary growth thickets, from sea level to 250 m.

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