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Magnoliopsida
Solanum roblense Bitter
EOL Text
Solanum roblense is very similar in appearance and is probably closely related to S. ramonense, another montane Costa Rican species. Solanum roblense is easily distinguished from S. ramonense by its larger flowers, longer, thinner anthers with a terminal thickened portion, and by its narrower leaves. The calyx of S. roblense is truncate in bud, in flower the lobes become short deltoid, and in fruit are woody and accrescent, while the calyx lobes of S. ramonense are long-triangular in bud and flower, and shrivel and break off in fruit.
Solanum roblense 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.. Solanum section Geminata (G. Don) Walpers (Solanaceae). Flora Neotropica 84: 1-405.
In primary forest in central montane Costa Rica. Most of the collections are from the slopes of Volcán Barba and Volcán Poas from 1800-2000 m.
Habit
Shrubs or small trees, 1-4 m tall; young stems and leaves glabrous or minutely papillose; bark of the older stems pale, transversely ruguse and peeling.
Sympodial Structure
Sympodial units difoliate, geminate.
Leaves
Leaves elliptic to narrowly elliptic, widest at the middle, glabrous, the margins lightly crenulate; major leaves 6.5-15.6 x 2.2-4.6 cm, with 8-12 pairs of main lateral veins, slightly raised above, prominent and yellowish beneath, the apex acuminate, the base attenuate; petioles 0.5-1.1 cm long; minor leaves differing from the major ones only in size, 2-5.4 x 0.8-2.4 cm, the apex acuminate, the base attenuate; petioles 2-6 mm long.
Inflorescences
Inflorescences opposite the leaves, simple, glabrous or occasionally minutely papillose at the extreme tip, 0.5-1 cm long; pedicel scars closely spaced and overlapping, beginning at the base of the inflorescence. Buds ovoid, the corolla soon exserted from the nearly truncate calyx tube. Pedicels at anthesis 0.9-1.1 cm long, deflexed, tapering from the base of the calyx tube to a slender base ca. 0.5 mm in diam.
Flowers
Flowers with the calyx tube 1-1.5 mm long, narrowly conical, the lobes short deltoid, 0.5-1 mm long, glabrous or occasionally minutely papillose; corolla white, 1-1.3 cm in diam., lobed 3/4 of the way to the base, planar at anthesis (?), the tips and margins of the lobes minutely papillose; anthers 3-3.5 mm long, with the terminal ca. 0.5 mm paler and thickened, 0.75-1 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores tear-drop shaped; free portion of the filaments ca. 0.1 mm long, the filament tube 0.5-0.75 mm long; ovary glabrous; style straight, ca. 5.5 mm long; stigma capitate, minutely papillose.
Fruits
Fruit a globose, green, glabrous berry, 0.8-1.1 cm in diam.; fruiting pedicels erect, woody, 1.6-2 cm long, 1-1.5 mm in diam. at the base; calyx lobes slightly accrescent and woody in fruit, ca. 2 mm long, with thick margins.
Seeds
Seeds tan, ovoid-reniform, ca. 3 x 2 mm, the surfaces minutely pitted.