大花茄 da hua qie

Trees to 12 m tall, sometimes armed with straight prickles, pubescent with stalked stellate hairs. Petiole 5-10 cm; leaf blade broadly ovate, 30 × 15-20 cm, scabrid with dispersed simple or stellate hairs adaxially, with sparse to dense, stalked stellate hairs and prickles abaxially, often with straight yellow or green prickles, base oblique, margin entire or sinuate-lobed, apex obtuse or acute. Inflorescences axillary or extra-axillary many-flowered racemes; peduncle mostly unbranched. Flowers showy, andromonoecious. Pedicel 0.6-1.5 cm, often leaving a conspicuous scar, with dense, bristlelike, long-stalked hairs. Calyx 1-1.5 cm, deeply lobed; lobes lanceolate, hispid with mostly simple hairs. Corolla opening deep purple, fading through blue to white over several days, 6-9 cm in diam., lobed ca. 1/3 way down, stellate hairy abaxially. Filaments 2-3 mm, glabrous; anthers oblong, apex narrowed, beaklike, 1.2-1.5 cm. Style dimorphic. Berry red, sometimes remaining green, globose, 3-4 cm in diam. Seeds lenticular, 2-3 mm in diam.

Hong Kong [Native of Bolivia and Brazil]

As no material from China was seen, the description was based on American plants. The species was originally described from a plant cultivated in Hong Kong.