You selected: Solanum aviculare G.Forst. Pl. Esc. 42. 1786. Status: Accepted.

Solanum aviculare G.Forst., Pl. Esc. 42. 1786. Type: New Zealand. “Queen Charlotte’s Sound”, Forster 107 (lectotype, BM, designated by Baylis, 1954; isolectotype, M). [ Forster, G 107;]

Last edited by Knapp, S. April 2006. Description based on taxon concept by Symon, D.E. pages 47-48 in Symon, D.E. 1994. Kangaroo apples: Solanum sect. Archaesolanum. Published by the author, Keswick, South Australia.

Habit

Shrubs (1-) 2 (-4) m, erect, soft-wooded and lasting several years, becoming woody towards base, straggly with age, not clonal; stem angular with raised lines, all parts glabrous except for minute simple and glandular hairs on young growing points and corolla tips, general aspect green.

Sympodial structure

Sympodial units plurifoliate.

Leaves

Leaves pinnatisect to simple, the apex acute to acuminate, the base cuneate, oblique; lobed leaves 15-30 cm x 10-15 cm, broadly elliptic to obovate, the lobes 3-11, 1-10 x 1-2 cm, lanceolate or long triangular, the sinuses rounded, cut to within 1 cm of midvein, the lobe apex acute to acuminate; simple leaves (8-) 10 (-25) x (1-) 2 (-3.5) cm, lanceolate-elliptic; petiole 1-1.5 cm long, usually distinct and unwinged to base.

Inflorescences

Inflorescence a scorpioid cyme of few to 10 flowers, from stem fork or leaf axil, often forked at base with a pedicellate flower in fork, the cyme rarely forked a second time; common peduncle usually lacking, the floral rachis to 15 cm long; pedicels at anthesis 1.5-2 cm long. Buds ellipsoid, soon exerted from the calyx tube.

Flowers

Flowers with the calyx campanulate, 3-4 mm long, the lobes bluntly triangular, the acumens short, blunt; corolla 3-4 cm diam., rotate-stellate, the lobes broad, interacuminal tissue slightly exceeding acumen, shallowly campanulate and often facing downards, blush-violet (close to RHS Lavender Violet 637/1 & 2) with a deeper violet central star; filaments ca. 3 mm long, thick; anthers ca. 4 mm long, oblong, firmly erect, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits; ovary glabrous; style 7-8 mm long, slightly sigmoid, pale, erect, glabrous; stigma pale or green.

Fruits

Fruit a berry, 2 x 1-1.5 cm, obovoid to ellipsoid, at maturity bright orange-red to scarlet, succulent.

Seeds

Seeds 200-600, 1.5-2 mm, obovate to broadly obovate, light or reddish-brown, the surfaces finely and concentrically rugose-reticulate; stone cells 12-60, 0.75-1.5 mm, rarely larger, rounded, rarely facetted, not conspicuous.

Chromosome number

n = 23 ( Baylis, 1954)

Distribution

Along east coast of Australia, the mountainous spine of New Guinea and New Zealand, wet areas and disturbed sites; naturalized in South Australia (Symon, 1981).

Other information

Cotyledons c. 10 x 5 mm, ovate, acute, almost glabrous, hypocotyls and petiole with simple hairs, first true leaf 15 x 12 mm with a few sparse hairs. (Fig 18.)

Phylogeny

Solanum aviculare is a member of the Archaeosolanum clade, a strongly supported monophyletic group in molecular analyses of using plastid DNA sequences, and is of no strong affinity with other groups of Solanum (Bohs, 1995). Symon (1981) places in series Avicularia Geras., with S. cheesmanii and S. baylisii, now both recognised as synonyms of S. aviculare. In Symon’s (1994) preliminary phylogeny based on morphology, Solanum aviculare is sister to the New Guinea endemic S. multivenosum, in a small monophyletic group with S. laciniatum.

Commentary

Solanum aviculare is easily confused with S. laciniatum, herbarium specimens without fruit or annotations as to fruit colour can be difficult to identify. Baylis (1954) first identified the difference between these species. Solanum aviculare is diploid, with orange or red mature fruit, and about 600 seeds per fruit; S. laciniatum is tetraploid, with green mature frutis, and ca. 200 seeds per fruit. Both of these species have a long history of cultivation for horticulture and for alkaloids, with industry developed in the ex-Soviet Union, Australia and New Zealand (summarized in Symon, 1994). None of these industries have persisted, due perhaps to variability in supplies, alkaloid content or to lack of demand after the development of synthetic production.

Crosses have been made between S. aviculare and the diploid species S. linearifolium, S. vescum and S. simile and the tetraploid species S. laciniatum and S. symonii (summarized in Symon, 1994).

Solanum aviculare may be one of the diploid parents of the tetraploid species S. laciniatum (and perhaps also S. multivenosum) with S. vescum (Symon, 1994), but molecular methods testing these hypotheses have not been employed.

The publication of the name Solanum aviculare is complex. In 1786, Forster published three accounts of the plants he collected in Australia and the Pacific during Captain James Cook’s second voyage (HMS Resolution). The first, published in Halle between August and September, was his Dissertatio inauguralis (Forster, 19786), which appeared slightly earlier than the more commonly available trade version, De Plantis Esculentis (Forster, 1786b), published in Berlin and also printed between August and September 1786 (Stafleu & Cowan, 1976). The two versions differ only in title page and the deletion of a footnote on page 19 in the trade version (Merrill, 1954). The Flora insularum australium prodromus (Forster, 1786c), with much more abbreviated descriptions and often cited as the original place of publication of Solanum aviculare, was published in October in Gottingen (Merrill, 1954; Stafleu & Cowan, 1976). The name first appears with an excellent, clear description in the Dissertatio, making it the correct place of publication of the name Solanum aviculare, although many also cite De plantis esculentis; the description is identical, but the Dissertatio was published marginally earlier (Stafleu & Cowan, 1976).

The lectotype specimen labelled “Nova Zeelandia” was collected by Georg Forster in New Zealand during Captain Cook’s second voyage to the southern Hemisphere between 1772 and 1775. Many names treated as synonyms of Solanum aviculare (e.g. Solanum brisbanense (Gers.) Geras.) were never validly published as the descriptions lacked Latin diagnoses or type specimen citations. Korneva (Korneva et al. 1972) proposed many horticultural forms grown in the ex-USSR as varieties, but none of these names were accompanied with the citation of type specimens, making them not validly published under the ICBN (Article 37.1). These names have no nomenclatural standing, and even if they did, are perhaps more correctly treated under the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (Brickell et al., 2004).

References

• Baylis, G.T.S. 1954. Chromosome number and distribution of Solanum aviculare Forst. and S. laciniatum Ait. Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 82: 639-643.Baylis, G.T.S. 1954. Chromosome number and distribution of Solanum aviculare Forst. and S. laciniatum Ait. Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 82: 639-643.
• Bohs, L. 2005. 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.Bohs, L. 2005. 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.
• Brickell, C.D., B.R. Baum, W.L.A. Hetterscheid, A.C. Leslie, J. McNeill, P. Trehane, F. Vrugtman & J.H. Wiersema 2004. International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. ISHS Acta Horticulturae 647.Brickell, C.D., B.R. Baum, W.L.A. Hetterscheid, A.C. Leslie, J. McNeill, P. Trehane, F. Vrugtman & J.H. Wiersema 2004. International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. ISHS Acta Horticulturae 647.
• Forster, J.G.A. 1786. De plantis esculentis insularum oceani australis commentatio botanica. Hande & Spener, Berlin.Forster, J.G.A. 1786. De plantis esculentis insularum oceani australis commentatio botanica. Hande & Spener, Berlin.
• Forster, J.G.A. 1786. Dissertatio inauguralis botanico-medica de plantis esculentis insularum oceani australis. Typis Frankianus, Halle.Forster, J.G.A. 1786. Dissertatio inauguralis botanico-medica de plantis esculentis insularum oceani australis. Typis Frankianus, Halle.
• Forster, J.G.A. 1786. Florae insularum australium prodromus. J.C. Dietrich, Göttingen.Forster, J.G.A. 1786. Florae insularum australium prodromus. J.C. Dietrich, Göttingen.
• Korneva, E.I., Z. Khabazi, Iu. S. Tursin & P.T. Kondratenko 1972. Intra specific variability of lobed nightshades and bird nightshades (in Russian). Rastitel’n. Resursy 8: 507-515.Korneva, E.I., Z. Khabazi, Iu. S. Tursin & P.T. Kondratenko 1972. Intra specific variability of lobed nightshades and bird nightshades (in Russian). Rastitel’n. Resursy 8: 507-515.
• Merrill, E.D. 1954. Bibliographic notes on G. Forster’s “De plantis esculentis insularum oceani australis” (1786). Pacific Sci. 8: 35-40.Merrill, E.D. 1954. Bibliographic notes on G. Forster’s “De plantis esculentis insularum oceani australis” (1786). Pacific Sci. 8: 35-40.
• Stafleu, F.A. & R.S. Cowan 1976. Taxonomic literature. Vol 1: A-G. Regnum Veg. 94.Stafleu, F.A. & R.S. Cowan 1976. Taxonomic literature. Vol 1: A-G. Regnum Veg. 94.
• Symon, D.E. 1981. A revision of Solanum in Australia. J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 4: 1-367.Symon, D.E. 1981. A revision of Solanum in Australia. J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 4: 1-367.
• Symon, D.E. 1994. Kangaroo apples: Solanum sect. Archaesolanum. Published by the author, Keswick, South Australia.Symon, D.E. 1994. Kangaroo apples: Solanum sect. Archaesolanum. Published by the author, Keswick, South Australia.

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