Solanum aligerum

Description. Small tree or shrub, 1.5 - 5 m tall, the branches arching. Stems glabrous to densely pubescent with simple or dendritic uniseriate trichomes 0.5 - 1 mm long, glabrescent, often strongly winged from the decurrent leaf bases, the wings to 0.5 cm wide; new growth pubescent with simple or dendritic uniseriate trichomes 0.5 - 1 mm. Bark of older stems dark reddish brown, shiny. Sympodial units plurifoliate. Leaves simple, (3.5 -) 6 - 15 cm long, 1.2 - 5 cm wide, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, membranous to slightly fleshy, the upper surfaces glabrous or sparsely (to occasionally densely) pubescent with simple or less often dendritic trichomes on the veins and lamina, the lower surfaces with dense tufts of dendritic trichomes 0.5 - 1 mm long in the vein axils, these trichomes occasionally extending along the midrib or to the lamina and the leaves more densely pubescent; primary veins 10 - 15 (- 20) pairs, the midrib keeled above, the veins often drying yellowish brown; base attenuate, often winged onto the stem; margins entire, sometimes revolute; apex acuminate; petioles 0.7 - 2 cm long, glabrous or pubescent like the stems, never twining. Inflorescences terminal or lateral, 4 - 15 cm long, many times branched, with 10 - 60 flowers, glabrous to pubescent, the trichomes simple or dendritic, ca. 0.5 mm long, denser at branch tips and at flower insertion points; peduncle 1.5 - 3.5 cm long; pedicels 1 - 1.2 cm long, ca. 0.5 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the apex, slender, erect to nodding, glabrous, articulated at the base and inserted into a short sleeve; pedicel scars mostly clustered at the tips of inflorescence branches on small platforms or irregularly spaced 2 - 5 mm apart more basally. Buds pointed ovoid or turbinate with an apical nipple, the corolla strongly exserted from the calyx tube before anthesis. Flowers all perfect, 5 - merous. Calyx tube 1.5 - 2.5 mm long, cup-shaped, narrowing abruptly to the pedicel, the lobes 1.5 - 2 mm long, quadrate with an apiculate tip to 0.5 mm long, the tips densely pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes, these extending adaxially, the adaxial surface densely papillate. Corolla 1.8 - 2 cm in diameter, white, often tinged with purple, stellate, lobed 2 / 3 to 3 / 4 of the way to the base, the lobes ca. 7 mm long, 5 mm wide, spreading, minutely pubescent abaxially, the tips cucullate, densely pubescent, the sinuses broad and thin, glabrous adaxially. Filament tube minute, the free portion of the filaments 0.5 - 1 mm long, glabrous; anthers 4.5 - 5.5 mm long, 1 - 1.5 mm wide, ellipsoid, loosely connivent, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age. Ovary glabrous; style 6.5 - 7 mm long, glabrous; stigma minutely capitate to slightly clavate, the surface minutely papillose. Fruit a globose berry, 1 - 1.2 cm in diameter, black or greenish black when ripe, the pericarp thin and shiny, glabrous; fruiting pedicels 1.5 - 1.7 cm long, ca. 1.5 mm in diameter at the base, woody, more or less nodding with the weight of fruits. Seeds 20 - 40 per berry, 2.5 - 3 mm long, 2 - 2.5 mm wide, flattened reniform, reddish brown or pale yellow, the surfaces minutely pitted, the testal cells square, the cell walls disintegrating and the seeds appearing hairy. Chromosome number: not known.