Family: Solanaceae
Solanum eremophilum
Citation:
F. Muell., Linnaea 25:432 (1853).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
A dwarf herbaceous perennial to 10-15 cm high; stems with few branches and flowering close to the base; prickles 5-8 mm long, straight, reddish, scattered on stems, petioles, leaf surfaces, peduncles and the calyx; all parts covered with a close tomentum of stellate hairs, also minute simple glandular hairs, general aspect rusty-green; leaves concolorous, 3-4.5 x 1.5-3.5 cm, ovate, with 7-9 main lobes, sinuses shallow and rounded, cut to one-third or less of the way to the midrib, lobes themselves rounded or with an undulate margin, leaf base truncate or rounded; petiole 1.5-4 cm long.
Inflorescence a 2-7-flowered cyme; peduncle c. 1 cm long (to first flower); floral rhachis 2-6 cm long; pedicels 1-2.5 cm long; calyx tube 2-3 mm long, prickly; lobes 3-6 mm long, broad-lanceolate, scarcely prickly; corolla 2.5-3 cm diam., broadly stellate, lobes cut to half way, interacuminal tissue not well developed, lobe apex rounded, acumen scarcely developed; filaments 1-2 mm long; anthers 4-5 mm long, stoutly lanceolate, divergently erect, dark-tipped at least with age; ovary globular to broadly conical, glabrous or with a few glandular hairs towards the summit; style 5-10 mm long, erect, firm, flushed with pale purple about the middle, stigma capitate, bluntly 2-fid, green, upper portion of style and stigma slightly bent to one side but not hooked.
Berry rare, greenish, calyx covering the base of the fruit.
| Flowering and fruiting branch and a fruit.
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Image source: fig. 575A in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Symon (1981) J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 4:184.
Distribution:
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S.Aust.: FR, NL. N.S.W.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: Nov. — March, but few records.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Taxonomic notes:
A localised species of interest as it may be a hybrid between S. petrophilum R. Br. and S. esurtale Lindley and more information on its biology is needed (cf. Symon (1976) S. Aust. Nat. 51:50-51).
Author:
Not yet available
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