狭叶茄 xia ye qie

Solanum cornutum Lamarck; S. heudesii H. Léveillé.

Herbs annual, 30-150 cm tall, copiously prickly, stellate pubescent. Stems of young plants glaucescent, pubescent with short, simple, often glandular hairs to 0.2 mm; older stems with scattered stellate hairs; prickles yellow, straight, 1-1.8 cm. Petiole 3-8 cm, armed; leaf blade broadly ovate, 10-20 × 3-8 cm, stellate pubescent, prickly along veins, 2- or 3-pinnatifid, pinnatisect near base; lobes irregularly ovate, dentate or sinuate, apex acute or obtuse. Inflorescences extra-axillary, 7-11-flowered scorpioid racemes, 4-12 cm; peduncle 5-10 mm. Pedicel ca. 5 mm. Calyx campanulate, divided nearly to base; lobes lanceolate, 5-10 mm, pubescent and prickly as on stems. Corolla yellow, often with an abaxial reddish band on lobes drying purplish, stellate, 1.5-2 × 2.5-3.5 cm; lobes lanceolate, stellate hairy. Filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers narrowly lanceolate, attenuate, 1.2-1.7 cm. Style 1.5-1.7 cm. Fruiting pedicel 1-1.5 cm. Fruiting calyx enlarged, enveloping most of berry, sparsely stellate-hairy, densely prickly, 1-2 cm. Berry globose, 1-1.2 cm in diam. Seeds dark brown, discoid, 2.2-2.8 mm in diam., minutely pitted, reticulately ridged. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct.

Adventive in Jiangsu [tropical Mexico south into Honduras]

Inclusion of this species is based on the original description of Solanum heudesii, the type of which we have not seen. Because no material from China was seen of this species, the above description is taken from a range of Mexican material.