山茄 shan qie

Solanum lasiostylum (Y. C. Liu & C. H. Ou) Tawada; S. torvum Swartz var. lasiostylum Y. C. Liu & C. H. Ou.

Shrubs 1-1.5 m tall, mostly armed, pubescent overall with stalked stellate hairs. Stems with dark or yellowish, stout, broad-based, recurved or reflexed prickles 2.5-10 × 2-10 mm. Leaves solitary or in somewhat unequal pairs; petiole 2-4 cm; leaf blade ovate-elliptic, 10-18 × 3-12 cm, drying of different colors, abaxially glabrescent or with sparse, sessile, stellate hairs, adaxially softly tomentose with dense, whitish, short-stalked hairs, base obtuse, rounded, or cuneate, margin subentire or 6- or 7-sinuate lobed, apex acute. Inflorescences extra-axillary, many-flowered cymes; peduncle mostly 1-3-branched, 1-2.3 cm, stellate pubescent with stalked hairs. Pedicel 4-8 mm, tomentose. Calyx 3-5 mm, pubescent; lobes ovate or broadly deltate, 2.5-3 mm. Corolla blue or purple, rotate, 0.8-1.2 × 1.5-1.8 cm; lobes ovate-lanceolate, 6-7 × 2-3 mm, pubescent abaxially, spreading, sometimes reflexed. Filaments ca. 0.5 mm; anthers 5-5.5 mm. Style 7-8 mm, base puberulent with stellate and simple hairs. Fruiting pedicel erect, 1-1.3 cm, stellate pubescent. Fruiting calyx not enlarged. Berry red, 5-8 mm in diam. Seeds discoid, ca. 1.5 mm in diam. Fl. and fr. throughout the year.

Wastelands, thickets. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan [Philippines]

The type of Solanum macaonense was not seen, and the name is used here with hesitation. Some features of the original description (stellate and simple hairs on the pedicels) suggest that it may be synonymous with S. torvum.