澳洲茄 ao zhou qie

Shrubs to 3 m tall; pubescence of simple hairs, soon glabrescent. Stems glabrous except for minute pubescence on young tips and buds. Leaves unequal paired, lobed and entire often on same plant; petiole of lobed leaf ca. 1-1.5 cm, that of entire leaf 0.5-1 cm; blade of lobed leaf broadly ovate, deeply pinnately 3-5-parted, 12-17 × 6-13 cm; blade of entire leaf lanceolate, 10-20 × 1.5-3 cm. Inflorescences terminal, axillary, or extra-axillary, scorpioid-racemose, ca. 8 cm; peduncle short or obsolete. Pedicel 1.5-3 cm. Calyx 5-7 mm; lobes deltate, 2-3 mm, leathery, apex mucronulate. Corolla blue-purple, rotate, 2-2.5 cm; lobes semirounded, notched. Filaments subulate; anthers oblong, 3-4 mm. Style ca. 8 mm. Berry orange-yellow, ovoid or ellipsoid, ca. 3 × 2.5 cm, pendulous. Seeds subovate, ca. 3 × 2 mm, compressed. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

Cultivated. Hebei, Hubei, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Yunnan [native of Oceania]

Solanum laciniatum is similar to S. aviculare Forster under which name it was introduced from Australia and known in FRPS and other works. It differs in having yellow-orange rather than scarlet fruit, notched corolla lobes, and in details of the seeds.