Lycianthes ciliolata var. pratorum Bitter

A Revision of Lycianthes series Meizonodontae
(UC) UC Berkeley/ (XAL) Institute de Ecologia, Xalapa
Lycianthes ciliolata (Mart, et Gal.) Bitter
Mexico: State of Puebla; Mpio. Tehuacan; E side of city of Tehuacan, just W and SW
of El Riego mesa, below El Riego cave and by road leading up to hills; 5500 ft.
In old fields and by drainage, near cultivated fields, with Physalis, Solanum, Setaria,
Mirabilis, Datura, Amaranthus and Compositae; herbicides commonly used now in
fields around Tehuacan, but I don't know about the fields near El Riego. Also present
in the house garden of the Espinoza Garcia family who live nearby; growing with com,
beans and squash. Hard, rocky soil of limestone origin. Herbaceous perennial from
thick storage root; common, but only in certain places, the plants clustered together;
some plants large and highly branched, others slender, with few branches; some plants
with few flowers, some with more than 20; flowers lilac with violet rays, open before
5:50 am (dawn was at 5:30 am and sunrise at 6:20 am) and closed by 8:45 am Bees
buzzing the flowers belong to the genera Thygator and Pseudaugochloropsis.
Informants: Hermalinda Garcia Espinoza (local goat herder) and two elderly men
walking in and around fields. Use: Black, sweet edible fruit. Plant grows wild here
and there, and the people gather the fruit when it's ripe. Now a volunteer weed in
Hermalinda’s garden. Was a popular edible fruit that has been around since one of the
men was a little boy. Indigenous names: "La pera", ''tomatillo", "corazoncito."
Ellen Dean 225	13 July 1991
with Thomas Starbuck
Fieldwork supported by grants and fellowships from:
the National Science Foundation, Explorer's Club, Sigma Xi, Hardman Foundation,
Tinker Foundation, and UC Berkeley