Solanum leiophyllum

Description. Shrubs to 3 m tall, the stems often scandent. Stems and leaves densely pubescent with loosely branching, lax, dendritic trichomes, these sometimes mixed with simple trichomes, later deciduous; leaf scars prominently raised, the stem strongly winged from the decurrent leaf bases; new growth densely pubescent with long, loose, dendritic trichomes to 2 mm long. Bark of older stems grey-brown, glabrate or sparsely pubescent with long dendritic or simple trichomes. Sympodial units plurifoliate, branching monochasial. Leaves simple, 1 - 4.5 cm long, 0.8 - 3 cm wide, broadly elliptic or ovate, shiny, fleshy, and coriaceous, the adaxial surfaces of the blades shiny and glabrous, the abaxial surfaces loosely pubescent with long dendritic trichomes along the veins and lamina, with some trichomes on the revolute margins; primary veins 3 - 6 pairs, strongly impressed above; base broadly acute, winged on to the petiole; margins entire, strongly revolute; apex broadly acute; petiole 1 - 2 mm long, winged from the decurrent leaf bases onto the stem. Inflorescences terminal, appearing lateral from overtopping shoot growth, 1.5 - 7 cm long, flattened globose in outline, branching 1 - 4 times, with 8 - 10 (- 30) flowers, the axis densely pubescent with loose dendritic trichomes; peduncle 0.8 - 2 cm long; pedicels 1.1 - 1.6 cm long, tapering from a basal diameter of 0.5 - 1 mm to an apical diameter of 1 - 1.5 mm, nodding at anthesis, sparsely pubescent with long simple and / or dendritic trichomes, articulated at the base and inserted in a sleeve ca. 1 mm long; pedicel scars spaced 1 - 2 mm apart. Buds ellipsoid, the corolla strongly exserted from the calyx tube. Flowers all perfect, 5 - merous, nodding at anthesis. Calyx tube conical, 1.5 - 2 mm long, the lobes long-triangular, 2 - 2.5 mm long, with scattered dendritic trichomes abaxially, these denser at the tips of the lobes, sparsely pubescent adaxially with simple trichomes along the veins. Corolla violet or a darker purple, 1.8 - 2 cm in diameter, stellate to slightly campanulate, lobed 3 / 4 of the way to the base, the lobes 8 - 10 mm long, 4 - 5 mm wide, planar at anthesis, densely pubescent abaxially with tiny dendritic trichomes, these denser at the tips of the lobes, glabrous adaxially. Filament tube absent; free portion of the filaments ca. 1 mm long, glabrous; anthers 5.5 - 6 mm long, 1.5 - 2 mm wide, loosely connivent, the bases caudate, poricidal at the tips, the pores becoming slit-like with age. Ovary glabrous; style 0.8 - 1 cm long, glabrous; stigma minutely bilobed, the surface minutely papillose. Fruit a globose berry, 0.8 - 1.3 cm in diameter, black with thin pericarp; fruiting pedicels 1.8 - 2 cm long, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the base woody, deflexed. Seeds ca. 7 per fruit, 3.5 - 4 mm long, 3 - 4 mm wide, reddish-brown, flattened lenticular, the surfaces minutely pitted. Chromosome number: not known.