Wild Relatives of the Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.: Solanaceae): New Understanding of Species Names in a Complex Group
Author
Knapp, Sandra
Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, United Kingdom
s.knapp@nhm.ac. uk
Author
Vorontsova, Maria S.
Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, Surrey, United Kingdom
Author
Prohens, Jaime
Instituto de Conservación y Mejora de la Agrodiversidad Valenciana, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
text
PLoS ONE
2013
2013-02-22
8
2
1
12
journal article
20350
10.1371/journal.pone.0057039
fcefd797-1d3e-43c6-ad6e-8550a33e9199
PMC3579775
23451138
6338572
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.