野煙樹

Shrub or small tree, 2-4 m tall, branched above to form a rounded canopy, unarmed, all parts densely pubescent with sessile to long-stalked stellate hairs, loose and floccose on young growth. Leaves paler on lower surface, simple, alternate, elliptic, up to 30 cm long and 12 cm wide on young vigorous growth, usually ca. 18cm long and ca. 6 cm wide on mature stems, margings entire, apex acuminate, base cuneate, often oblique, peioles 3-9 cm long, each with 1 or 2 smaller auriculate leaves in axils which are sessile, rounded, sometime absent from weak or distal shoots. Flowers perfect, actinomorphic, numerous in branched corymbs; peduncles up to 15 cm long to first fork, pedicels 2-3 mm long; calyx tube short, 2-3 mm long, lobes narrowly triangular, 1-2mm long; corolla lilac blue with a pale star-shaped area at base, stellate, 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter; stamens 5, inserted low on corolla tube; filaments ca. 1 mm long; anthers oblong, 2-3.5 mm long, opening by terminal pores; ovary densely pubescent; lower part of style pubescent, 5-7 mm long; stigma green, terminal. Berries dull yellowish, succulent, globose, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, pubescent at least in early stages. Seeds numerous, flattened, 1.5-2 mm long, testa minutely reticulate.

NANTOU: Jenai, Wang et al. 5269, Wang et al. 5285, Wang et al. 7101 (TNM).

The native range of Solanum mauritianum is in Uruguay and southeastern Brazil of eastern South America, now wildely naturalized in warm temperate regions tropics of the world, such as the Pacific islands, Australia, New Zealand, La Reunion, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Bhutan, Tonga, Africa, Madagascar, Hawaii, Queensland, and Atlantic islands. It has only been found in Nantou County of central Taiwan and occurs in open situation.

Wang, C.-M. 2003. Solanum mauritianum Scop. (Solanaceae), a newly naturalized plant in Taiwan. Coll. and Res. 16: 67-70.