Solanum vacciniiflorum Standl. & L.O. Williams

Solanum vacciniiflorum is easily recognized by its large pointed buds, bullate leaves, and weak, reddish pubescence of the leaf undersides. It is most closely related to S. validinervium of montane western Venezuela but differs from that species in its leaf shape, geminate leaf clusters, and pointed flower buds. Solanum vacciniiflorum is one of the largest of the Central American members of section Geminata, growing to 25 m tall in sheltered areas. Collections of the species from Panama have much longer inflorescences than those from Costa Rica but are otherwise identical to Costa Rican plants.Trichomes in S. vacciniiflorum are polymorphic in being uniseriate simple or branched, but whether branched or simple, they are small-celled and weak. The occurrence of branched trichomes on the leaf undersides is sporadic in the species; some individuals have many of the trichomes branched, while others have all uniseriate trichomes. Those individuals with more branched hairs are not from more exposed habitats, so it seems the character is not under environmental control.

• 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.

Bosques nubosos y montano alto.

Habit

Large shrubs to trees, larger in sheltered habitats, 3-15 m tall; young stems and leaves glabrous or pubescent with uniseriate trichomes 0.25-0.75 mm long; the stems occasionally with gnarled trichomes with multiseriate bases ca. 6 cells wide, 0.25-0.5 mm long, the tips uniseriate, 0.25-0.5 mm long, these hairs soon deciduous; older stems with the epidermal layer peeling transversely in one cell-layer thick sheets, in dry material appearing whitish; bark of trunks greyish.

Sympodial Structure

Sympodial units difoliate, geminate.

Leaves

Leaves elliptic to narrowly elliptic, widest at the middle, somewhat bullate in live plants, the margins revolute, the lamina glabrous or minutely red-papillose along the veins above, occasionally with a few scattered uniseriate trichomes on the upper leaf lamina, below sparsely to densely pubescent with weak uniseriate trichomes primarily along the veins, but occasionally on the lamina, the trichomes small-celled, quite weak and curling, reddish, 0.5-1 mm long, occasionally branched; major leaves 6-17 x 2-6 cm, with 10-22 pairs of parallel main lateral veins, these raised above, prominent and reddish below, the apex acute to acuminate, the base acute; petioles 0.6-2.2 cm long; minor leaves differing from the major ones only in size, 3-9 x 0.8-4 cm, the apex acute to acuminate, the base acute; petioles 5-9 mm long.

Inflorescences

Inflorescences opposite the leaves, simple or occasionally several times branched, 0.8-10 cm long, 2-50-flowered, glabrous or with uniseriate trichomes like those of the young stems and leaves; pedicel scars on short inflorescences closely spaced, but not overlapping, on long inflorescences ca. 1.5 mm apart. Buds ovoid, the corolla soon exserted from the calyx tube, larger buds ovoid with the tip pointed, glabrous or with a few scattered uniseriate trichomes. Pedicels at anthesis deflexed, 1.2-2 cm long, tapering from the calyx tube to a slender base ca. 0.5 mm in diam.

Flowers

Flowers with the calyx tube broadly cup-like, 0.5-1 mm long, the lobes broadly rounded-deltoid, 0.5-1 mm long, occasionally with a few uniseriate trichomes, more often glabrous; corolla white, fleshy, 1.5-1.8 cm in diam., lobed nearly to the base, the lobes planar at anthesis, the tips and margins of the lobes minutely papillose; anthers 4.5-5 x 1-1.5 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores tear-drop shaped; free portion of the filaments minute, ca. 0.2 mm long, the filament tube ca. 0.5 mm long; ovary glabrous; style straight, in short style flowers ca. 4 mm long, in long style flowers ca. 8 mm long; stigma small-capitate, minutely papillose.

Fruits

Fruit a globose, apiculate, green or yellowish-brown berry, ca. 1 cm in diam.; fruiting pedicels woody, deflexed, 1.8-3 cm long, 1-1.5 mm in diam. at the base.

Seeds

Seeds pale reddish-tan, flattened-reniform, ca. 4 x 3 mm, the margins incrassate, the surfaces minutely pitted.