Solanum umtuma Voronts. & S.Knapp

Knapp, Sandra, Vorontsova, Maria S. & Prohens, Jaime, 2013, Wild Relatives of the Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.: Solanaceae): New Understanding of Species Names in a Complex Group, PLoS ONE 8 (2), pp. 1-12 : 10

10. Solanum umtuma Voronts. & S.Knapp , PhytoKeys 8: 4. 2012.

Distribution. Endemic to the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa; occasional on grassland, scrub, and forest edges, on sandy soil, 50–1300 m elevation.

Solanum umtuma is sympatric with and closely related [ 38] to S. linnaeanum . Solanum linnaeanum has distinctive deeply incised leaves with rounded lobes (see Fig. 1E ) while S. umtuma has more shallowly lobed leaves with acute lobes although some specimens have been seen with rounded lobes. The flowers of S. umtuma are usually pale lilac or white, while those of S. linnaeanum are purple. Solanum cerasiferum is also similar, but has less prickly calyces and deltate, rather than leafy, calyx lobes.

Figures

Figure 1. Representative flower and fruit morphology of eggplant and its wild relatives. A. Solanum campylacanthum inflorescences (Kenya - Vorontsova et al. 157); B. Solanum incanum immature fruit (Kenya – Vorontsova et al. 203); C. Solanum insanum fruit cross-section (China – Wang et al. 2047); D. Solanum insanum inflorescence with several hermaphrodite flowers (China – Wang et al. 2039); E. Solanum linnaeanum with yellow mature and mottled green immature fruit, note highly dissected leaves (Spain - Knapp IM-10096); F. Solanum melongena flower with duplicated parts (China – Wang et al. 2042). Photographs: A, B taken M.S. Vorontsova; C, D, E, F taken by S. Knapp. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0057039.g001