Solanum harmandii Bonati, Bull. Soc. Bot. Geneve , ser . 2, 3: 310. 1914.

Aubriot, Xavier & Knapp, Sandra, 2022, A revision of the " spiny solanums " of Tropical Asia (Solanum, the Leptostemonum Clade, Solanaceae), PhytoKeys 198, pp. 1-270 : 1

17. Solanum harmandii Bonati, Bull. Soc. Bot. Geneve, ser. 2, 3: 310. 1914.

Fig. 29

Type.

Cambodia. Sin. loc., F.J. Harmand s.n. (lectotype, designated here: P [P00055939]) .

Description.

Shrub, size unknown, armed. Stems erect, terete, prickly and densely stellate-pubescent; prickles to 1 cm long, to 0.5 cm wide at the base, straight, deltate, laterally flattened, orange brownish, sparsely to moderately stellate-pubescent in the lower half; trichomes porrect-stellate, mixture of sessile and stalked, the stalks to 0.1 mm long, the rays 5-8, 0.1-0.4 mm long, the midpoints absent or up to 0.1 mm long, with bulbous bases; new growth densely pubescent, light brownish; bark of older stems greyish, moderately stellate-pubescent. Sympodial units plurifoliate, the leaves not geminate. Leaves simple, shallowly lobed, the blades 6-16.5 cm long, 3-10 cm wide, ca. 1.5 times longer than wide, elliptic to ovate, chartaceous, discolorous, unarmed on both surfaces, or occasionally with a few prickles along the midvein; adaxial surface green, moderately to densely stellate-pubescent, the stellate trichomes porrect, sessile to stalked, the stalks to 0.2 mm long, the rays 5-8, 0.1-0.5 mm long, the midpoints to 0.25 mm long; abaxial surface densely whitish stellate-pubescent with trichomes like those of the adaxial surface; major veins 5-7 pairs drying light-green; base shortly attenuate to truncate; margins shallowly lobed, the lobes 3-4 on each side, 0.5-1.5 cm long, broadly deltate, apically rounded, the sinuses less than halfway to the midrib; apex acute; petiole 1-2.5 cm long, 1/10-1/5 of the leaf blade length, unarmed or prickly with 1-3 prickles, densely stellate-pubescent. Inflorescences 2.5-4 cm long, apparently lateral, forked or 2 times branched, with ca. 8-9 flowers, 2 flowers open at any one time, densely whitish stellate-pubescent, trichomes like those of the stems but with longer stalks, unarmed; peduncle ca. 0.5 cm long, unarmed; pedicels 0.25-0.4 cm long, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 2 mm in diameter at the apex, erect, unarmed, densely whitish stellate-pubescent like the inflorescence axes, articulated at the base; pedicel scars spaced 1.5-3 mm apart. Flowers 5-merous, apparently all perfect. Calyx with the tube ca. 2 mm long, campanulate, the lobes 1-2.5 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, deltate with an elongate acute apex, unarmed and densely whitish stellate-pubescent with trichomes like those of the pedicels. Corolla 0.7-1.2 cm in diameter, colour unknown, stellate, lobed 1/2-2/3 of the way to the base, the lobes 5-7 mm long, 2.5-4 mm wide, deltate, spreading at anthesis, glabrous adaxially, densely stellate-pubescent abaxially on parts exposed in bud. Stamens equal; anthers ca. 8 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide, glabrous, not tightly connivent, tapering, orange, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores not elongating to slits with drying; filament tube <0.5 mm long, glabrous; free portion of the filaments ca. 0.5 mm long, glabrous. Ovary conical, with simple glandular hairs in the upper 1/4; style ca. 3.5 mm long, slender, curved at the apex, glabrous; stigma capitate, minutely papillate. Fruits and seeds unknown. Chromosome number: not known.

Distribution

(Fig. 30 ). Solanum harmandii is endemic to Cambodia, but without specific locality.

Ecology and habitat.

Solanum harmandii is known only from the type collection, on which no habitat information was recorded.

Common names and uses.

None recorded.

Preliminary conservation status

( IUCN 2019). Data Deficient (DD). Known only from the type collection, probably collected between 1875 and 1877 (see below). No locality or habitat information was recorded which makes the recollection of this plant a priority.

Discussion.

Solanum harmandii is a stout shrub that is morphologically very different from all the other spiny solanums treated here. The growth form is reminiscent of members of the Brevantherum clade (sensu Gagnon et al. 2022), but it possesses copious prickles and in flower morphology it is a typical spiny solanum with tapering anthers opening by distally directed pores. Solanum giganteum of the Indian subcontinent has similar overall morphology, with many-branched inflorescences, but differs from S. harmandii in its scurfy white pubescence of multangulate trichomes and entire leaves that are usually almost glabrous adaxially.

Hul and Dy Phon (2014) cited “holo-P” in their treatment of S. harmandii , but Bonati (1914) cited no herbarium in any part of the publication of this species. Although he was known to have worked in Paris, this does not constitute effective lectotypification. We here designate the single specimen in P (P00055939) as the lectotype. The type specimen was collected during a French expedition led by Dr. Jules Harmand, then medical officer in the region previously known as Indochina, between 1875 and 1877 ( Arousseau 1922); detailed itineraries are not available for his collecting trips.

Specimens examined.

See Suppl. materials 1-3.

Figures

Figure 29. Solanum harmandii Bonati Herbarium specimen (lectotype) collected in Cambodia (Harmand s. n., P 00055939). Photograph credit: CC-BY, Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris.

Figure 30. Distribution of S. harmandii.