Solanum caesium Griseb.

The New York Botanical Garden
Plants of BOLIVIA
Solanaceae Solanum caesium Griseb.
det. M. Nee, 2009
DEPTO. Santa Cruz, Prov. Florida, along highway from
Santa Cruz to Samaipata, 11.3 km by very windy road NE
of the turnoff to Bella Vista in the Cuevas area.
18°08’56”S,63o41’31”W. alt 1215 m.
Unshaded roadside gravel and rocks which had been dumped
in the last few years. Huge, solid population, ca. 200 x 7 m,
nearly monospecific, but with a few saplings of Nicotiana
otophora and a few other plants. Annual herbs, robust,
spreading branches, somewhat decumbent at base, to 1 m. tall;
plant not aromatic. Flowers with face held vertically or
nodding, odorless (5:15 P.M., mostly sunny), visited by small
bumblebee but not many seen for the enormous number of
open flowers. Corolla white; anthers yellow. Fruit deflexed
downwards. This species abundant in many similar habitats
along the highway from Angostura to Samaipata, especially
where recent road construction or road equipment had been
active; in 20 years of exploring this highway, I have seen the
species here, but never in such abundance.
BOTANICAL
^ardeV
Coll.: M. Nee & M. Mendoza
No. 56664
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GAFTOEN
04208476
04208476