海南茄 hai nan qie

Solanum hainanense Hance.

Shrubs erect or prostrate, 1-2 m tall, much branched, armed, pubescent overall with stellate hairs. Stems and branches terete, with copious recurved prickles 2-4 × 1.5-4 mm. Petiole 0.5-1.5 cm; leaf blade ovate-oblong, 1.5-6.5 × 1-3.5 cm, adaxially with sparse stellate tomentum, densely tomentose abaxially, prickly on both surfaces, base cuneate or rounded, margin usually 5-sinuate lobed, rarely entire, apex obtuse. Inflorescences terminal, rarely appearing extra-axillary, several-flowered scorpioid racemes. Flowers 4-merous; pedicel 4-12 mm. Calyx cup-shaped, 3-4 mm; lobes deltate, unequal, 1-2 mm, stellate tomentose abaxially. Corolla white, pale reddish, or pale purple, ca. 1 cm; lobes lanceolate, 4-7 mm, with stellate hairs abaxially. Filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers ca. 6 mm. Style ca. 7 mm. Fruiting pedicel 1-2 cm. Berry shiny red, globose, 7-9 mm in diam. Seeds pale yellow, reniform-discoid, ca. 3 × 2 mm. Fl. Apr-Sep, fr. Sep-Dec.

Forests, thickets; 300-1200 m. Guangdong, Guangxi (Hepu Xian), Hainan [Laos, Vietnam].