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Magnoliopsida
Solanum armentalis J.L. Gentry & D'Arcy
EOL Text
This species is has been collected only from the Pacific slope of the southern Cordillera de Talamanca in Costa Rica around General Viejo, San Vito, and on the continental divide near Cerro Kasir, in edges and understory in wet forest between 700-1200 (-3000) m in elevation. It is probably also found in neighboring parts of Panama.
This species is very similar to and sympatric with S. celsum, but differs in its pubescence of stellate hairs with very elongated and usually gland-tipped midpoints and without a fused central portion. Solanum armentalis can be distinguished from S. cordovense by its long peduncles and small flowers with short calyx lobes. Unlike S. lepidotum and S. schlechtendalianum, the leaf surfaces of S. armentalis are not strongly discolorous (green adaxially and white abaxially).
Solanum armentalis is a member of the Brevantherum clade sensu Bohs (2005). Its phylogenetic position within that clade has not been investigated using molecular data.
- 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.
Habit
Shrub up to 1-2 m tall. Stems moderately to densely pubescent with sessile yellowish stellate or multangulate hairs, the rays 7-8, 0.1-0.3 mm long, the midpoints very long (0.8-1.3 mm) and often glandular.
Sympodial Structure
Sympodial units 5- to many-foliate, geminate or not.
Leaves
Leaves simple, the blades 3-18 x 2-7.5 cm, ca. 1.5-3.5 times as long as wide, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, sometimes paired with much smaller, more rounded and sessile leaves 1.5-4 x 1-3 cm, chartaceous, glabrescent adaxially or with a few scattered stellate hairs, the veins densely stellate-pubescent, densely pubescent abaxially with sessile whitish or yellowish stellate or multangulate hairs, the rays 7-8, 0.1-0.3 mm long, with the midpoints very long (1-1.5 mm) and sometimes glandular; base cuneate to rounded; margin entire; apex acuminate; petioles 0.5-1 cm, with dense stellate pubescence like that of the stem.
Inflorescences
Inflorescences 5-7 cm, usually leaf-opposed, forked or further branched, with 10-30 flowers, all flowers apparently perfect, the axes densely pubescent with whitish or yellowish stellate hairs like those of the stem; peduncle 2-4 cm; rachis 2-3 cm; pedicels 5-15 mm in flower, 10-20 mm in fruit, erect, spaced 1-4 mm apart, articulated at the base.
Flowers
Flowers with the calyx 2-3 mm long, the tube ca. 1 mm, the lobes 1-1.5 x 1 mm, deltate, acute at tips, densely stellate-pubescent with hairs like those of the stem; fruiting calyx slightly accrescent, the lobes 2-3 x 2 mm, subtending but not covering the fruit. Corolla 0.6-1 cm in diameter, 4-5 mm long, stellate, chartaceous, white, the tube 1-1.5 mm, the lobes 3-5 x 1.5-2 mm, lanceolate, stellate-pubescent abaxially, especially toward tips, glabrous adaxially. Stamens equal, the filaments ca. 0.5 mm; anthers 1.5-2 x 0.5-1 mm, oblong, not connivent, yellow, the pores large, directed distally, opening into longitudinal slits with age. Ovary glabrous; style 2-4 x 0.25-0.5 mm, cylindrical, glabrous, straight or curved; stigma capitate.
Fruits
Fruits ca. 1 cm in diameter, globose, green when unripe, probably green or yellowish when ripe, glabrous, held upright.
Seeds
Seeds ca. 2 x 2 mm, flattened, yellowish, the surface reticulate.
Flowering specimens have been collected in January, July, and August. Fruiting specimens have been collected in January and March.