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Magnoliopsida
Solanum ramonense C.V. Morton & Standl.
EOL Text
In primary forest in montane Costa Rica and western Panama from 600-2000 m.
Solanum ramonense is very similar vegetatively to S. roblense, also of montane Costa Rica, but is easily distinguished from that species by its minute flowers, triangular calyx lobes, and large fruits on rather stocky pedicels. Solanum ramonense is most closely related to S. arboreum of lowland Central and northern South America, with glabrous leaves, congested pedicel scars, and berries borne on erect pedicels.The ripe fruit when split open smells strongly of wintergreen, a trait observed for other deep forest solanums (Knapp & Helgason, 1997). This suggests an animal dispersal agent, but none have been observed. Fruits of Solanum ramonense have been found on the forest floor with the seeds germinating inside (pers. obs.). The fruits have very few seeds, and the seeds are quite large. Solanum ramonense blooms in the late wet season and early dry season (Knapp, 1986a), an unusual flowering time for shrubs in the Costa Rica cloud forest. Most other species of section Geminata at Monteverde bloom at the end of the dry season and the beginning of the wet season.
Solanum ramonense is a member of the Solanum arboreum species group (Knapp, 2002) of the Geminata clade (Bohs, 2005).
- Bohs, L.. Major clades in Solanum based on ndhF sequences. Pp. 27-49 in R. C. Keating, V. C. Hollowell, & T. B. Croat (eds.), A festschrift for William G. D’Arcy: the legacy of a taxonomist. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 104. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.
- Knapp, S.. Reproductive biology of Solanum section Geminata in a Costa Rican cloud forest. Pp. 253-263 in Solanaceae: biology and systematics, ed. W. G. D’Arcy. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Knapp, S.. Solanum section Geminata (G. Don) Walpers (Solanaceae). Flora Neotropica 84: 1-405.
- Knapp, S. & T. Helgason. A revision of Solanum section Pteroidea Dunal: Solanaceae. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. London, Bot. 27: 31-73.
Habit
Shrubs 1-2 m tall; young stems and leaves glabrous and occasionally minutely papillose, soon glabrous; bark of the older stems pale grey, lenticellate; the stems slightly swollen at the nodes; branches gently arching.
Sympodial Structure
Sympodial units difoliate, geminate.
Leaves
Leaves elliptic, glabrous, dark green and shining above, paler beneath, widest at the middle; major leaves 9-15 x 4.2-6.5 cm, with 8-10 pairs of main lateral veins, impressed above, prominent and paler below, the apex acuminate, the base attenuate; petioles 0.9-1 cm long; minor leaves differing from the major ones in size and occasionally in shape, usually rounded, 1.2-5 x 0.9-3.1 cm, the apex acute or rounded, the base attenuate; petioles 2-7 mm long.
Inflorescences
Inflorescences opposite the leaves, simple, 0.2-0.8(-2) cm long, 5-10-flowered, glabrous or minutely papillose on the extreme tip; pedicel scars closely spaced and overlapping, beginning at the base of the inflorescence. Buds globose when very young, later becoming ellipsoid, the calyx lobes long-acuminate in bud, minutely papillose and occasionally with a few uniseriate trichomes ca. 0.05 mm long. Pedicels at anthesis 3-5 mm long, deflexed, tapering from the calyx tube to a slender base ca. 0.5 mm in diam.
Flowers
Flowers with the calyx tube 0.5-1 mm long, the lobes long-triangular, deflexed, white, 0.5-1 mm long, glabrous at anthesis; corolla white, 5-6 mm in diam., lobed nearly to the base, the lobes reflexed at anthesis, the tips and margins of the lobes minutely papillose; anthers 1.5-2 x 0.75-1 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores tear-drop shaped; free portion of the filaments 0.25-0.5 mm long, the filament tube ca. 0.25 mm long; ovary glabrous; style straight, 3-3.5 mm long; stigma capitate, minutely papillose.
Fruits
Fruit a globose, green berry, 1.4-1.6 cm in diam., smelling strongly of wintergreen (methyl salicylate) when ripe; fruiting pedicels erect and woody, ca. 1.2 cm long, ca. 1.5 mm in diam. at the base.
Seeds
Seeds very few per fruit, large, pale tan, ovoid-reniform, 3-5 x 1-2.5 mm, the surfaces minutely pitted.
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 0
Specimens with Barcodes: 12
Species With Barcodes: 1