You selected: Solanum uleanum Bitter Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 12: 139. 1913. Status: Accepted.

Solanum uleanum Bitter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 12: 139. 1913. Type: Brazil. Acre: Rio Acre, Porto Carlos, February 1911, Ule s.n. (syntype, B destroyed; lectotype, G, designated by Knapp & Helgason, 1997).

Last edited by Knapp, S. December 2004. Description based on taxon concept by Knapp, S. & T. Helgason pages 68-69 in Knapp, S. & T. Helgason 1997. A revision of Solanum section Pteroidea Dunal: Solanaceae. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. London, Bot. 27: 31-73.

Habit

Creeping herb, often tightly adhering to tree trunks and fallen logs, attaining up to 6 or 7 m in length. Stems ca. 5 mm in diameter, copiously rooting at and between the nodes, pale greenish white, sparsely to densely pubescent with simple, uniseriate 5-6-celled trichomes 0.5-1 mm long, drying cateniforme.

Sympodial structure

Sympodial units unifoliate.

Leaves

Leaves 3-15 x 2.5-10 cm, pinnate, elliptic, with 3-7 pairs of leaflets, the petiole 0.8-6 cm long; rachis of leaf minutely winged, especially between the terminal leaflet and the ultimate pair, sparsely to densely pubescent with trichomes like those of the stem; lateral leaflets elliptic, 1.5-6 x 0.42 cm, sparsely to densely pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes like those of the stems, these denser adaxially, especially along the veins, the base attenuate, winged onto the rachis, petiolule ca. 2 mm long, the apex obtuse to rounded; basal pair of leaflets smaller than the laterals, the apex more rounded; terminal leaflets equal in size to the laterals, elliptic to obovate, strongly winged onto the rachis.

Inflorescences

Inflorescence 1-10 cm long, axillary, occasionally 2-3 separate rachis arising from a single axil, occasionally branched, with 3-4 open flowers at a time, with up to 100 scars unevenly spaced ca. 0.5 mm apart, sparsely to densely pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes 0.5-1 mm long, drying white. Buds ca. 3 mm in diameter, globose soon becoming ellipsoid, strongly exserted from the minute calyx tube. Pedicels at anthesis 0.5-0.7 cm long, filiform, nodding, sparsely pubescent like the rest of the inflorescence.

Flowers

Flowers with the calyx tube ca. 0.5 mm long, conical, the lobes 0.5 x 0.5-0.75 mm, quadrate with an apical projection, sparsely to densely pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes, these denser on the apical projection; corolla 6-10 mm in diameter, greenish white, lobed nearly to the base, the lobe somewhat cucullate and slightly reflexed at anthesis, minutely papillose at the tips and along the margins; anthers 1.5-2.5 x 1-1.2 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits, free portion of the filaments ca. 0.5 mm long, the filament tube minute and glabrous; ovary glabrous, conical; style 3-4 mm long, strait, densely long-papillose in the lower 1/2; stigma capitate.

Fruits

Fruit a conical, green berry, 1-1.2 x 1.5-1.6 cm, the beak ca. 5 mm long and not containing seeds, truncate at the tip; fruiting pedicel 0.8-1 cm long, hanging.

Seeds

Seeds ca. 20 per berry, 3-3.5 x 1.5-2.5 mm ovoid-reniform, greyish green to grey-brown; epidermal cell wall sinuous, thickening but without projections.

Distribution

Eastern slopes of the Andes from central Ecuador to central Peru, from 200-1200 m elevation, usually growing in primary forest or at the edges of clearings.

Phylogeny

Solanum uelanum is a member of the Solanum mite species group of section Pteroidea in the Potato clade (Bohs, 2005). Based on morphology (Knapp & Helgason, 1997), S. uleanum is sister to S. savanillense.

Commentary

Solanum uleanum is certainly one of the most beautiful of the species of section Pteroidea. Its small size and peculiar (but found elsewhere in the section, see Solanum anceps) creeping habit make it conspicuously different from the other pinnate-leaved species. It has been considered a novel glasshouse plant, and was brought into cultivation in Germany (see Knapp, 2001). Despite its distinctive morphology, it can be difficult to distinguish on the herbarium sheet. Solanum uleanum differs from both S. conicum and S. mite (both of which are sympatric with S. uleanum) in its smaller, more rounded leaflets which are more winged onto the rachis (i.e. without a petiolule) and its greenish flowers. Fruiting specimens of S. uleanum have rarely been collected, but the elongate beak appears to be distinctive.

As with all members of section Pteroidea, Solanum uleanum possesses great variability in pubescence density. The type specimen (a photograph in the original publication and the lectotype at G) is densely hairy, while other collections are almost glabrous. There appear to be no environmental factors influencing this, but more detailed field studies could help clarify the situation. Solanum uleanum often grows up trees at the edge of gaps or clearings in the forest, and individuals growing in the deep shade of the forest understory have much thinner, more membranous leaves.

Both of the syntypes (Ule s.n. from Porto Carlos and Ule s.n. from San Francisco) cited by Bitter in the original description of Solanum uleanum were destroyed at B. The collection from Porto Carlos is represented in the herbarium at G by a duplicate annotated in Bitter’s hand that matches the plate accompanying the original description. The second syntpe, Ule s.n. collected in June 1911 at San Francisco may be the same specimen as the type of var. unipedunculatum (see synonyms). The numbering and dating of Ule’s collections is occasionally somewhat confused.

References

• 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.
• Knapp, S. 2001. Plate 427. Solanum uleanum. Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 18(4): 194-199.Knapp, S. 2001. Plate 427. Solanum uleanum. Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 18(4): 194-199.[doi: 10.1111/1467-8748.00314]
• Knapp, S. & T. Helgason 1997. A revision of Solanum section Pteroidea Dunal: Solanaceae. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. London, Bot. 27: 31-73.Knapp, S. & T. Helgason 1997. A revision of Solanum section Pteroidea Dunal: Solanaceae. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. London, Bot. 27: 31-73.

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