Solanum woodsonii, Correll

Spooner, David M., Van Den Berg, Ronald G., Peña, Antonio Rivera-, Velguth, Peter, Rio, Alfonso Del & López, Alberto Salas-, 2001, Taxonomy of Mexican and Central American Members of Solanum Series Conicibaccata (sect. Petota), Systematic Botany 26 (4), pp. 743-756 : 754-755

SOLANUM WOODSONII Correll , Wrightia 2: 137. 1961.

— TYPE: PANAMA. Chiriquı´: Volcán de Chiriquı´ , Potrero Muleto to summit, 3500–4000 m, 13–15 July 1940, R. E. Woodson Jr. & R. W. Schery 399 (holotype: GH! [photo: LL!] ; isotypes: MO [2]! [photos: BM!, PTIS!], US! [photo: PTIS!]) .

Plants 0.3–2.5 m tall; finely to coarsely pubescent above and below, blades 10–42 cm long, 6–22 cm wide, petioles 3–10 cm long; lateral leaflets (2)3–5 pairs, sessile to subsessile with petiolules to 2 mm long; interjected leaflets 0–2; inflorescence with 7–16 flowers; calyx lobes 1.5–2 mm long, acute; corolla 2.8–3.6 cm in diam, purple; fruits 1.5–2.6 cm long.

Additional Specimens Examined. PANAMA. Chiriquí: Potrero Muleto, 10,400 ft., Volcán de Chiriquı´, Davidson 1017 ( F) ; Distrito y Corregimeinto Boquete, E slopes of Volcán Barú (Volcán de Chiriquı´), near the dirt road to the summit of the volcano from Bajo Boquete, along the way to El Salto, above Potrero Muleto, 8°49̍15̍N, 82°31̍47̍W, 3015 m, Sep 6 2000, Spooner et al. 7405 ( CIP, EAP, PMA, PTIS)* ; Distrito Bugaba; Corregimiento Cerro Punta, on N-facing slope of Volcán Barú (Volcán de Chiriquı´), ascending ‘‘sendero [footpath] de los Quetzales,’’ a trail departing from the park guard station of Alto Respingo, reached by driving on a dirt road ca. 5 km E of the town of Cerro Punta, 8°48̍46̍N, 82°32̍24̍W, 3045 m, Sep 9 2000, Spooner et al. 7413 ( CIP, EAP, PMA, PTIS)* .

Correll (1961) described S. woodsonii as possessing a small lobed dorsal base of the anther and indicated that this anther lobe ‘‘may be diagnostic.’’ We could not find this lobe on the isotype specimen at GH nor in living material in the field in Panama.

Correll (1962) and Hawkes (1990) indicated that S. woodsonii is found in Venezuela. Correll (1962) cited the sole Venezuelan collection of this species as VENEZUELA. Andes of Trujillo and Mérida, 1225–4300 m, I. Linden 473 p. p. [FI, G, K]. He cited other specimens of this same collection (at OXF, P, US) as the type of S. dolichocarpum Bitter , which he synonymized under S. colombianum Bitter . Hawkes (1990) cited no specimen, and Hawkes (1997, database accompanying this publication) cited no specimen of S. woodsonii for Venezuela, but rather identified different components of I. Linden 473 as S. colombianum and S. otites .

We made 16 collections of ser. Conicibaccata throughout Venezuela ( Spooner et al. 1995), and searched the Andean localities of Trujillo and Mérida and points in between. These cities are more than 100 km apart by air and therefore preclude definitive searches for the locality of Linden 473. We identify all of our Venezuelan collections as S. colombianum . Our examination of Linden 473 at G, OXF, P, and US show it to be S. colombianum . In agreement with Ochoa (1979) we do not think that S. woodsonii occurs in Venezuela.