Solanum comitis Dunal, Prodr. [A. P. de Candolle] 13(1): 345. 1852.

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

8. Solanum comitis Dunal, Prodr. [A. P. de Candolle] 13(1): 345. 1852.

Fig. 12

Solanum comitum St.-Lag., Ann. Soc. Bot. Lyon 7: 135. 1880, nom. illeg. superfl. Type. Based on Solanum comitis Dunal.

Type.

Indonesia. Java: Sin. loc., 1837, Without collector [J.C. von Hoffmannsegg] s.n. (holotype: G-DC [G00131442]; isotype: W [acc. # 1889-0135755]) .

Description.

Habit not known, but probably shrubs or small trees, unarmed or armed with a few tiny prickles hidden by dense pubescence. Stems erect, terete, with a few tiny prickles and densely stellate-pubescent; prickles 1-3 mm long, very sparse if present, broad-based, straight, pale yellowish tan, usually absent; pubescence of mixed sessile and very short-stalked porrect-stellate trichomes, the stalks to 0.5 mm long, the rays 8-10, ca. 0.5 mm long, weak and tangled, the midpoints absent or to 0.4 mm long; new growth densely stellate-pubescent, the trichomes tangled whitish grey in dry material; bark of older stems grey (but only quite young stems seen). Sympodial units difoliate, the leaves geminate, the leaves of pair equal in size and shape or one leaf slightly smaller. Leaves simple, not lobed, the blades 5-11 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, ca. 2 times longer than wide, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, chartaceous, strongly discolorous, unarmed or sometimes sparsely armed along the midrib and major veins with small straight prickles; adaxial surface evenly and sparsely pubescent with erect short-stalked multangulate trichomes, the multiseriate stalks 0.1-0.5 mm long, the rays 6-8, ca. 0.4 mm long and all directly upwards (no clear midpoint), the lamina surface clearly visible; abaxial surface densely pubescent with tangled long-stalked porrect-stellate trichomes, the stalks ca. 1 mm long, the rays 8-10, to 0.6 mm long, thin and delicate; major veins ca. 5 pairs, densely pubescent especially abaxially, with a few tiny prickles abaxially; base acute-attenuate, somewhat oblique; margins entire; apex acute, the tip rounded; petioles 1-1.5 cm long, 1/8-1/4 as long as the leaf blades, sparsely prickly and densely stellate-pubescent, with 1-2 prickles to 2 mm long or more commonly prickles absent, the pubescence of sessile and short-stalked stellate-trichomes like those of the stems. Inflorescences 1-5 cm long, internodal and lateral, unbranched, with 5-15 flowers, only a few flowers open at any one time, densely pubescent with white sessile and short-stalked stellate-porrect trichomes like those of the stems, with 6-8 rays ca. 0.5 mm long and midpoints to 0.4 mm long or absent; peduncle absent and the first inflorescence branches appearing to arise directly from the stem, or to 0.3 cm long, unarmed; pedicels 1.2-1.7 cm long, ca. 1.5 mm in diameter at the base and apex, spreading to erect at anthesis, unarmed, densely stellate-pubescent like the inflorescence axes, articulated at the base; pedicel scars irregularly spaced 1.5-2 mm apart. Buds elongate ellipsoid and somewhat tapering, strongly exserted from the calyx before anthesis. Flowers 5-merous, apparently all perfect, but some distal flowers may be short-styled. Calyx with the tube ca. 3 mm long, conical, the lobes 1.5-2 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, deltate, unarmed and densely white stellate-pubescent abaxially with porrect-stellate trichomes like those of the pedicels. Corolla 2-2.6 cm in diameter, colour not recorded, shallowly stellate, lobed ca. halfway to the base, interpetalar tissue present and abundant, the lobes 6-9 mm long, 6-8 mm wide, deltate, spreading at anthesis, mostly glabrous adaxially but with a few stellate trichomes at the tips, densely stellate-pubescent abaxially with densely tangled sessile trichomes where exposed in bud, these densest at the tips, the interpetalar tissue glabrous or with a few stellate trichomes abaxially. Stamens equal or very slightly unequal, if unequal 3 longer than the other 2; anthers (longer 3) 7.5-8 mm long, ca. 1.5 mm wide, (shorter 2) 5-6 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide, all tapering, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores directed distally, not elongating to slits with drying; filament tube minute, glabrous; free portion of the filaments ca. 0.5 mm long, glabrous. Ovary conical, glabrous; style 10-13 mm long, glabrous; stigma capitate, the surfaces minutely papillose. Fruit a globose berry, several per infructescence, ca. 1.2 cm in diameter, colour not known, pericarp thin and shiny, glabrous; fruiting pedicels 1.6-1.8 cm long, 0.8-1 mm in diameter at the base, 2-2.5 mm in diameter at the apex, erect and slightly woody; fruiting calyx lobes ca. 2.5 mm long, not markedly accrescent, but covering the base of the berry and not reflexed. Seeds 20-50 per berry, ca. 3 mm long, ca. 2.3 mm wide, flattened reniform, pale yellowish tan, the surfaces minutely pitted, testal cells shape not clear. Chromosome number: not known.

Distribution

(Fig. 13 ). Solanum comitis is endemic to the island of Java, Indonesia. No specific localities are recorded on the only two gatherings known of this species.

Ecology and habitat.

No habitat information has been recorded for S. comitis .

Common names and uses.

None recorded.

Preliminary conservation status

( IUCN 2019). Data Deficient (DD); known only from two collections of uncertain specific locality. Solanum comitis has not been re-collected since the early 19th century, indicating it is certainly of conservation concern. Recollection of this distinctive species and discovery of any precise localities for its occurrence are priorities.

Discussion.

Solanum comitis is a distinctive species, with dense pubescence of multangulate trichomes that dries with a whitish grey tinge. It is superficially similar to the western Australian S. lasiophyllum Dunal with dense whitish grey pubescence but differs from that species in its smaller flowers that are probably all hermaphroditic, smaller berries and completely different habitat (tropical versus dry and seasonal). Its relationships are not known, but in the inflorescence, flower and fruit morphology S. comitis resembles members of the Torva clade that occur in the Asian tropics (e.g., S. poka , S. pseudosaponaceum ) and we suspect it is a member of that group. Re-collection of this species is a priority.

Although the type specimen is attributed to J.C. Graf van Hoffmansegg, he never actually collected in Java, but rather employed a friend who made natural history collections for him ( van Steenis-Kruseman 1985).

Specimens examined.

See Suppl. materials 1-3.

Figures

Figure 12. Solanum comitis Dunal. Herbarium specimen (isotype) collected in Indonesia (Without collector [J. C. von Hoffmannsegg] s. n., W [acc. 1889 - 0135755]). Photograph credit: CC BY, Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien.

Figure 13. Distribution of Solanum comitis.