Solanum sieberi Van Heurck & Müll.Arg.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Solanaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Solanum sieberi Van Heurck & Müll.Arg.

  • Type

    Type. Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad; S.loc., Sieber 22 (lectotype, GDC, here designated; isolectotypes, G, M [Morton neg. 8720], P)

  • Synonyms

    Solanum nudum var. longifolium Dunal, Solanum callobotrys Pittier, Solanum micranthum Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrubs or small trees, 1-5 m tall; young stems and leaves minutely red-papillose, glabrous or pubescent with white uniseriate trichomes 0.2-0.75 mm long; older stems glabrate; bark of older stems grayish-brown. Sympodial units difoliate, geminate. Leaves elliptic to ovate, widest at or just proximal to the middle, glabrous above, glabrous or pubescent along the veins below with uniseriate trichomes like those of the young growth; major leaves 9-16 x 3-9 cm, with 6-8 pairs of main lateral veins, these raised above, prominent and darker below in dry specimens, the apex acute, the base acute, slightly decurrent on the petiole; petiole 1-1.5 cm long; minor leaves differing from the major ones in size and shape, more rounded in outline, 1.5-5 x 1-3 cm, the apex acute to rounded, the base acute; petioles 0.5-1 cm long. Inflorescences opposite the leaves, slender, often once furcate, 0.7-6 cm long, 5-50-flowered, glabrous or pubescent with uniseriate trichomes like those of the young stems and leaves; pedicel scars unevenly spaced, closely spaced to 0.5 mm apart, beginning ca. 1/3 of the way from the base of the inflorescence. Buds globose when very young, the corolla soon exserted from the calyx tube, older buds with a characteristic narrowly ellipsoid shape, the tips flattened. Pedicels at anthesis 7-9 mm long, tapering from the calyx tube to a slender base ca. 0.25 mm diam. Flowers sweetly fragrant, with the calyx tube 0.75-1 mm long, broadly cup-shaped, the lobes deltoid, ca. 0.5 mm long, glabrous or pubescent with the same uniseriate trichomes as the rest of the inflorescence, 0.1-0.75 m long; corolla white, 0.8-1 cm diam., lobed 3/4 of the way to the base, the lobes strongly reflexed at anthesis, the tips and margins of the lobes minutely papillose; anthers 2.5-3 x 0.75-1 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores teardrop shaped; free portion of the filaments minute, less than 0.2 mm long, the filament tube ca. 0.5 mm long; ovary glabrous; style straight, 5-6 mm long; stigma not much differentiated from the rest of the style, minutely papillose. Fruit a globose, green berry, ca. 1 cm diam.; fruiting pedicels erect, woody, 1-1.7 cm long, ca. 1 mm diam. at the base, ca. 3 m diam. at the apex in dry specimens (with a conspicuous rhomboidal swelling at the apex in live plants). Seeds pale tan, ovoid-reniform, ca. 3.5x 2 mm, the surfaces minutely pitted. Chromosome number, n = 12 (vouchers Knapp & Mallet 6698, 6702, 6710).

  • Discussion

    Solarium sieberi is most closely related to S. imberbe of Panama, coastal Colombia, and Venezuela, but differs from that species in its elliptic, geminate leaves, flowers with the petals strongly reflexed at an-thesis, and its fruiting pedicels with a conspicuous rhom-boidal swelling at the apex.

    Solarium sieberi is polymorphic for the presence of uniseriate trichomes, which if present, are on all parts of the plant. This is reflected in the large number of names given to this species by Pittier (many of which are only on herbarium annotation labels); most of these “taxa” are merely pubescence variations. Populations of the species from adjacent areas differ in only this character, and I do not consider this a particularly informative character in this species. The flowers of S. sieberi have a sweet scent, and the plants flower profusely, attracting a number of small generalist bees (see Table EX). The habitat of S. sieberi is most commonly near seeps and other wet places in otherwise rather dry habitats. In Parque Nacional Morrocoy, Venezuela, the plants grew at the edges of roads in ditches of standing water and at the edges of mangrove swamps, beyond the reach of salt water.

    Two Sieber collections are cited in the original description of this species, one unnumbered from Martinique, and the collection from Trinidad I have selected as the lectotype. The Trinidadian collection has been selected as the lectotype because it is better represented in herbaria, a better documented collection, and an annotated specimen exists in G-DC. Henri Van Heurck’s herbarium is housed at AWH, but I have seen no photographs or duplicates of the Sieber collection from Martinique in any United States or European herbaria.

  • Common Names

    zamurito

  • Distribution

    Along the northern coast of South America from Colombia to Trinidad and Martinique, in wet microsites in otherwise dry areas, from sea level to 1000 m.

    Martinique South America| Colombia South America| Guajira Colombia South America| Magdalena Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Carabobo Venezuela South America| Falcón Venezuela South America| Lara Venezuela South America| Portuguesa Venezuela South America| Zulia Venezuela South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America|