Solanum pastillum S.Knapp

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Solanaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Solanum pastillum S.Knapp

  • Type

    Type. Costa Rica. Puntarenas: Monteverde, Campbell s Woods, 1450 m, 20 Aug 1982, Knapp, Holbrook & Putz 6063 (holotype, BH; isotypes, CR, F, K, MO, NY, US).

  • Description

    Species Description - Slender arching shrubs, 1-3 m tall; stems glabrous, green, horizontally spreading, winged between the nodes with the decurrent leaf bases; bark of the older stems pale green, white-lenticellate. Sympodial units difoliate, geminate. Leaves elliptic-ovate, widest at or just proximal to the middle, dark green and slightly búllate above, pale sea-green beneath, glabrous; major leaves 11.2-22 (25) x 3.4-6.6 (11.3) cm wide, with 68 pairs of main lateral veins, raised above, paler and prominent beneath, the apex long-acuminate, the base decurrent on the petiole, attenuate to cuneate; petioles 0.5-1 cm long; minor leaves elliptic or occasionally orbicular, differing from the major ones in size and shape, 2.1-6 x 1.1-3.5 cm, the apex long-acuminate, the base attenuate (or cuneate); petioles 3-5 mm long. Inflorescences opposite the leaves, simple, glabrous, translucent-green, minutely white-lenticellate, 1.7-7 cm long, slender and pendulous, 5-50-flowered; pedicel scars irregularly spaced, 1-3 mm apart, beginning ca. 1 cm from the base of the inflorescence. Buds conical, the corolla soon exserted from the globose calyx lobes, glabrous. Pedicels at anthesis deflexed, 1.4-1.5 cm long, tapering from the calyx tube to a slender base ca. 0.5 m diam. Flowers with the calyx tube ca. 1.5 mm long, broadly cup-shaped, translucent-green, the lobes on fresh specimens consisting of five orbiculate projections ca. 0.5 mm diam. on the rim of the calyx tube, in dry specimens of irregularly shaped projections 0.51 mm long from the rim of the calyx tube, glabrous and translucent green; corolla greenish-white, 1.1-1.2 cm across, lobed ca. 3/4 of the way to the base, the lobes reflexed at anthesis, the tips of the lobes carinate-hooded, minutely papillose; anthers 2.5-3.25 x 1.25-1.5 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores teardrop shaped; free portion of the filaments ca. 0.5 mm long, the filament tube ca. 0.5 mm long; ovary glabrous; style 5-6 mm long, straight or curved in dry specimens; stigma capitate, minutely papillose. Fruit a globose berry, greenish-yellow at maturity, ca. 50-seeded, 1-1.5 cm diam., usually only one or two from an inflorescence; fruiting pedicels 1.9-2.6 cm long, woody, deflexed, 4-7 mm diam. at the apex, the base slender, ca. 0.5 mm diam. Seeds pale brown or tan, ovoid-reniform, 3.5-4 x 2-2.5 mm, the surfaces minutely pitted, the pits very shallow, the seeds appearing smooth. Chromosome number: n = 12 ( vouchers Knapp s.n., Knapp et al. 6063).

  • Discussion

    Solanum pastillum is related to S. tuerckheimii, also of montane central Costa Rica (but extending into Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico). The two species share the understory habitat, long inflorescences of greenish-white flowers with reflexed petals at anthesis, and hard green fruits which become yellow and soft upon maturity. These two species and S. ombrophilum of montane coastal Venezuela are unusual in the S. confine species group in having rather stout inflorescences and large flowers, but otherwise they conform to the characters of the rest of the species group, particularly in their seed and leaf morphology.

    Solanum pastillum blooms at the beginning of the wet season at Monteverde de Puntarenas, Costa Rica, the type locality, and is pollinated primarily by bumble bees, Bombus ephippiatus Say (Knapp, 1986a). The local distribution pattern of S. pastillum is typical of many of the forest understory species of sect. Geminata. Small clumps of three to five individuals grow at widely spaced intervals in the understory, often at the edges of old gaps caused by tree or branch falls. The inflorescences of S. pastillum are many-flowered, but only a few fruits per inflorescence develop. Whether this is due to poor pollination success or to fruit abortion is not known. The presence of a single fruit on a long inflorescence causes the effective pedicel length of the fruit to be extremely long. This may make the fruit more visible to small frugivorous bats, known to take the fruits of this and at least three other species of sect. Geminata in Monteverde (Dinerstein, 1983).

  • Distribution

    Found only in the cloud forests of montane S Nicaragua and Costa Rica from (75-) 1000 to 1700 m.

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