Solanum exarmatum Anil, Maya, Soumya & Murugan, 2015

Kumar, V. S. Anil, Nair, Maya C. & Murugan, K., 2015, Taxonomic delineation of Solanum exarmatum, a new species from Solanum capsicoides All. in Southern Western Ghats, Kerala, India, Phytotaxa 221 (3), pp. 295-300 : 296-298

Solanum exarmatum Anil, Maya, Soumya & Murugan sp. nov. ( Figure 1. a–j )

Solanum exarmatum is similar to Solanum capsicoides but differs from it in its deeply lobed leaves, absence of spines on stem, pedicel and calyx and in the presence of a short style, which never protrudes beyond the middle of the anther column.

Type: — INDIA: Kerala: Thiruvananthapuram district, Jersey farm, way to Bonaccord-via-Vithura, 4 th February 2012 110 m, V. S. Anil kumar & K. Murugan TBGT 016 (Holotype: JNTBGRI, Isotypes: CALI, JNTBGRI) ( JNTBGRI – Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Palode, Thiruvananthapuram).

Annual herb, about 25–50 cm height, usually unbranched but occasional branching was noticed: unarmed except the lax tender spines on petiole and on the lower leaf surface: spines 0.27–0.34 cm long. Stem ascendant, hirsute, bearing long pointed hairs. Leaves simple, ovate to ovate elliptic deeply sinuately lobed, the apex is truncate and the base is obliquely cordate; blades, 10.5–11.17 × 8.56–9.31 cm, dark green and profusely shaggy; the upper surface being studded with glandular trichomes with elongated stalk and bulbous head interspersed with long multicellular eglandular trichomes. Inflorescence extra axillary, cymose, 2–5 flowered, unbranched with 1–2 flowers opening at a time on pubescent pedicels. Calyx 4–5-merous, green, pubescent, 0.38–4 × ca. 0.2 cm, lobes with acute apex. Corolla 4–5-merous, stellate, white, pubescent, 0.3–0.31 × 0.78–0.82 cm, deeply incised lobes with reflexed margins and acute apex. Stamens tapering, yellowish at the base and white at the tip, 4 or 5 in number, ca. 0.7 × ca. 0.01 cm, free, equal, poricidal and glabrous at the base. Pollen grains are trizonocolporate, dimorphic with syn-echinulate exine ornamentation. Ovary glabrous, ca. 0.58 × ca. 0.03 cm, the style short, 0.09–0.28 cm long, glabrous with a green capitate stigma.

Fruit, a rounded berry, usually 1–2 per infructescence, 1.8–2.1 cm diameter, the pericarp thin, smooth and shiny, glabrous, dull green with few light green streaks in younger stage and turning scarlet red to reddish orange at maturity, drying to orange-brown. Fruiting pedicels pendulous, 1.03–1.06 cm long, devoid of spiny outgrowths. Fruiting calyx not accrescent, covering less than 1/6 of the mature fruit, unarmed. Seeds numerous, creamy-yellow and winged. The seed surface is rugulate.

Flowering and fruiting:— August–March

The species is named as per the habit of the plant-absence of dense cover of spines, which demarcates it from its allied species.

Distribution and ecology: —The species occurs in wet shady places along the margins of water channels near jersey farm, Vithura, Bonaccord, Thiruvananthapuram at 110 m elevation. The species is also found growing as an ornamental in home gardens in Dhoni hills, Palakkad district and Neyyattinkara region of Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala.

Additional specimens examined (Paratypes): — INDIA: Kerala: Thiruvananthapuram District: Manjavilakom region, Neyyattinkara to Karakkonam 30 th October 2012, 25 m, V.S.Anil kumar and K. Murugan, TBGT063 (JNTBGRI). Palakkad District: Dhoni 3 rd April 2012, 400 m, V.S. Anil kumar and Maya C Nair. VSA 047 (CALI).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Solanum exarmatum a. Habit.b. Spineless petiole and stem bearing flowers.c. Inflorescence.d. Longitudinal section of flower e. Spineless calyx f. Anther g. Gynoecium h. Twig with mature fruits i. Persistent calyx on mature fruit j. Reddish mature berries.