Solanum sessiliflorum Dunal
EOL Text
A lowland species, usually growing between 0 and 500 m but occasionally cultivated at somewhat higher elevations, mostly in open sun, apparently found only in association with man, intentionally cultivated or spontaneous in human disturbances and about habitations. Frequent in the upper Amazon Basin of southern Colombia, Ecuador, and northern Peru, cultivated sporadically in settlements along the Amazon and Orinoco River systems of Brazil and Venezuela as far east as Belém.
Commentary from Whalen et al. (1981):The cocona is highly variable in fruit size, form and flavor (Pahlen, 1977), and there is abundant evidence that these variations are commonly recognized and named on a local scale by residents of the upper Amazon Basin where the plant is indigenous. Indians of the Río Cenepa in Departamento Amazonas, Peru use four names to refer to locally grown morphs of S. sessiliflorum. Schultes and Romero-Castañeda (1962) have documented the presence of many locally named cultivars in Amazonian Colombia. They believed two of these were sufficiently distinctive to be considered species separate from S. sessiliflorum, and they proposed the names S. alabile and S. georgicum to refer to them.Solanum alabile, from the Putumayo River of Colombia, has very large, globose fruits up to 10 cm in diameter, sweeter and less acidulous than other forms of S. sessiliflorum. The authors conceded that the species status of S. alabile was questionable. We view the plant as an extreme in a spectrum of fruit variation and choose not to accord it nomenclatural recognition. The form does not seem to be consistently distinguishable by any characters other than those of the fruit, and plants with similar large berries occur sporadically elsewhere throughout the range of S. sessiliflorum.Another form, called S. georgicum by Schultes and Romero-Castañeda (var. georgicum here), is of great interest as a possible progenitor of S. sessiliflorum cultivars. The stems and leaves of var. georgicum are prickly, and the berries globose and relatively small, characters that are likely to be ancestral in S. sessiliflorum . Loss of prickles and increase in size and variability of fruits would have been predictable results of human selection upon var. georgicum-like ancestors during the process of domestication. No other characters distinguish var. georgicum from var. sessiliflorum. The two are fully interfertile (Heiser, 1972), and at least one population is known (at Limoncocha, Ecuador) in which the distinguishing characters segregate freely (Heiser, 1971). The var. georgicum is narrowly restricted in distribution, found only in lowlands just east of the Andes in Ecuador and extreme southern Colombia. If the large-fruited, unarmed cultivars of S. sessiliflorum have indeed been derived from var. georgicum, then an origin in that region would be suggested.Schultes and Romero-Castañeda (1962) provided a useful summary of the introduction of the cocona into international horticulture. Apparently, the species was never grown outside the Amazon Basin until 1949, when it was established at the Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agricolas in Turrialba, Costa Rica. From Costa Rica, the cocona was soon disseminated to other experiment stations, botanic gardens, and agricultural concerns under the misapplied name, S. hyporhodium. The spread of the species as a domesticate in the Amazon Basin, however, predated the Costa Rica introduction by many years and probably preceded the arrival of European man. Humboldt and Bonpland collected the species in 1800 on the upper Orinoco River, where it was presumably found in association with indian dwellings and where it already had an established indigenous name, tupiru. The ca. 1812 collection that typifies S. sessiliflorum came from Pará, far down the Amazon from the region where the species is native. The plant was very likely in cultivation there then, as it is now, under the name cubiu.It is regrettable that the name S. sessiliflorum must supplant the more widely used S. topiro to refer to the cocona. According to Index Kewensis, both epithets originated in the same Dunal work, the Solanorum Synopsis of 1816, with S. topiro published on an earlier page. In fact, S. sessiliflorum was proposed two years earlier in 1814 in Dunal’s treatment of Solanum for Poiret’s supplement to Lamarck’s Encyclopédie Méthodique. The name was one of several validly published there that were missed in the compilation of Index Kewensis.
Solanum sessiliflorum belongs to the Leptostemonum clade of Solanum (Bohs, 2005). Within Leptostemonum, it belongs to the Lasiocarpa clade, a monophyletic group that includes most of the species traditionally recognized in Solanum section Lasiocarpa Dunal (Whalen et al., 1981; the S. quitoense species group of Whalen, 1984; Levin et al., 2006). Within this clade, chloroplast sequences from the trnT-F region indicate that S. sessiliflorum belongs to a clade that also includes S. stramonifolium and S. pectinatum (Bohs, 2004). However, nuclear waxy sequence data do not support this relationship and rather indicate that S. sessiliflorum is an isolated lineage in the Lasiocarpa clade (Bohs, unpublished data).
- Bohs, L.. A chloroplast DNA phylogeny of Solanum section Lasiocarpa (Solanaceae). Syst. Bot. 29: 177-187.
- 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.
- Heiser, C.B., Jr.. Notes on some species of Solanum (Sect. Leptostemonum) in Latin America. Baileya 18: 59-65.
- Heiser, C.B., Jr.. Ethnobotany of the naranjilla (Solanum quitoense) and its relatives. Econ. Bot. 39: 4-11.
- Levin, R.A., N.R. Myers, & L. Bohs. Phylogenetic relationships among the "spiny" solanums (Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum). Amer. J. Bot. 93: 157-169.
- Pahlen, A. von der. Cubiu (Solanum topiro Humb. & Bonpl.), uma fruteira da Amazônia. Acta Amazonica 7: 301-307.
- Schultes, R.E., & R. Romero-Castañeda. Edible fruits of Solanum in Colombia. Botanical Museum Leaflets 19: 235-286.
- Whalen, M.D.. Conspectus of species groups in Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum. Gentes Herbarum 12 (4): 179-282.
- Whalen, M.D., D.E. Costich & C.B. Heiser, Jr.. Taxonomy of Solanum section Lasiocarpa. Gentes Herb. 12: 41-129.
Habit
Erect or spreading, lignescent perennials, 1-2 m tall. Stems terete, stellate-pubescent, the stellae often apparently sessile, with short stalks to 0.1 mm long, or some of them with longer stalks to 0.3 mm, the lateral rays 5-9, 0.3-0.6 mm long, often lying in a plane parallel with the stem surface. the midpoints much shorter than the rays, 0.05-0.15 mm long; usually unarmed, rarely prickly.
Sympodial Structure
Sympodial units 2-foliate, geminate.
Leaves
Leaves simple, the blades 25-45 x 21-39 cm, ca. 1.2 times as long as wide, broadly ovate, thin-textured, adaxially sparsely to densely sericeous with apparently simple pubescence consisting of sessile stellate hairs with elongate midpoints and reduced lateral rays, the midpoints 0.5-1.8 mm long; lateral rays few or obsolete, 0.05-0.2 mm long when present, the major veins invested densely with stellae having shorter midpoints and well-developed lateral rays, densely cinereous-tomentose abaxially with interwoven, short-stalked stellae; unarmed; major lateral veins 5-7 on each side; base truncate and often somewhat asymmetric; margin coarsely dentate, with 5-7 deltoid acute-tipped lobes at lateral vein terminations, the interlobal sinuses often with 1-3 smaller tooth-like lobes; apex acute to obtuse; petioles relatively short, 4-16 cm, 1/10-1/4 the length of the blades, stellate-pubescent.
Inflorescences
Inflorescences 3-10 cm, extra-axillary, unbranched, with 6-16 flowers, the lowermost 2-5 flowers perfect, the axes stellate-pubescent; peduncle 0-0.5 cm; rachis 0-0.8 cm; pedicels 2-7 mm in flower, 5-8.5 mm in fruit, spaced 0-2.5 mm apart, articulated at the base.
Flowers
Flowers with the calyx broadly campanulate, 5-8 mm wide, 2-3.5 mm long, the tube 4-6.5 mm, the lobes 8-14 x 5.5-8 mm, ovate to broadly ovate, acute-tipped, each usually with a prominent midvein, stellate-pubescent abaxially. Corolla 1.8-2.8 cm in diameter, 15-22 mm long, stellate, thin-textured, white or greenish-white, the tube 1-5 mm, the lobes 11-18 x 4-12 mm, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, spreading, stellate-pubescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Stamens with filaments ca. 0.7-1 mm; anthers 6.5-9.5 x 1.5-2.5 mm at base, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, attenuate, more or less connivent, often weakly curved upward at the tips, the uppermost pair of anthers often somewhat longer than the lower three, yellow, the pores directed distally. Ovary stellate-pubescent; style 8-11 x 0.3-0.6 mm in perfect flowers, cylindrical, often downcurved and projecting between the lower anthers, glabrous; stigma capitate.
Fruits
Fruits 1-3 per inflorescence, 2.5-9.5 cm in diameter, 4-6-locular, globose or ovoid, orange-red, deep red or rarely yellow when ripe, the flesh yellow, densely stellate-pubescent at first but the hairs deciduous and berries usually essentially glabrous at or before maturity, the hairs 0.4-1 (-2) mm long, each with 15-50 short lateral rays 0.05-0.15 mm long densely distributed along the stalk, the midpoints short, 0.1-0.8 (-1.5) mm long.
Seeds
Seeds numerous, 3.2-4 x 2.1-2.7 mm, yellow, lenticular, broadly reniform-ovate in outline, the surfaces minutely foveolate or almost smooth, the margins often somewhat thickened.
nuclear ITS sequence: GenBank AY263455 (voucher: Dickson 458, BH; from Whalen 859, HUT) nuclear waxy (GBSSI) sequence: GenBank AY996467 (voucher: Heiser 8255, IND) chloroplast trnS-G sequence: GenBank AY998469 (voucher: Heiser 8255, IND) chloroplast trnT-F sequence: GenBank AY266261 (voucher: Dickson 458, BH; from Whalen 859, HUT) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nucleotide&val=33355762 chloroplast trnT-F sequence: GenBank AY266260 (voucher: Heiser 8255, IND) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nucleotide&val=33355761
Vernacular names: Brazil: cubiu. Colombia: be-tá-ka (Kubeo), cocona, de-twá (Taiwano, Tatuya), lulo, tupiru. Peru: cocona, kukush (in Dept. Amazonas). Venezuela: pupú (Arecuna), tupiru. Uses: Like its highland relative the lulo (S. quitoense), the cocona is a regionally important domesticate that may have great unrealized potential as a tropical fruit crop. The berries have a pleasing acidulous flavor reminiscent of citrus. They are eaten directly or in salads, used for juice, and to prepare beverages, and are cooked in fish and meat dishes. Other more unexpected uses of the plant have also been reported. For example, the powdered seeds are said to be employed by Taiwano indians in lowland Colombia to relieve irritation of the mouth caused by chewing coca. The fruits are rich in niacin and thiamin (Pahlen, 1977).
Ripe cocona fruits ready to be eaten
Solanum sessiliflorum or Cocona is a tropical shrub belonging to the Solanaceae family. The cocona plant has sturdy branches and huge, serrate and hairy leaves. Cocona closely resembles a number of close relatives, including naranjilla and pseudolulo. It can be distinguished from those plants by its lack of spines. It will hybridize with those and other close relatives. Cocona also lacks the characteristic purple coloring usually seen in the naranjilla. Its flowers resemble large potato flowers, with light green petals. Cocona is harvested in parts of South America around the Amazon rainforest such as Purús Province in eastern Peru.[3]
The fruit of cocona is a red, orange or yellow edible berry. Cocona is native to the Andean region of South America, where it is occasionally cultivated for human consumption.
Cocona can also be grown as an indoor ornamental plant in temperate climates, but it seems to be quite sensitive to spider mites, so care should be taken not to keep it in too dry air during winter. Like the naranjilla, coconas are highly sensitive to aphids and nematodes. As subtropical plants, they can endure cool weather, but will be killed or severely damaged by frost. During summer, it can be grown outside or in a cold greenhouse. When grown from seed, coconas can bear fruit in as little as 9 months, or as long as 24.
Described on the Discovery Channel show Survivorman while in the Amazon jungle in late 2007, they were said to provide a "flavor explosion", with a taste between a lemon and a tomato.
Solanum georgicum and Solanum hyporhodium were (and sometimes still are) included in this species, but they are generally treated as distinct today.[2]
6-month old cocona plants
References[edit]
- ^ in J.L.M. Poiret, Encyclopedie Methodique. Botanique, Supplement 3: 775. 3 Sep. 1814.
- ^ a b Solanaceae Source (2005)
- ^ es:Palestina (Perú)
Footnotes[edit]
- Solanaceae Source (2005): Solanum sessiliflorum. Version of December 2005. Retrieved 2008-SEP-25.
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