Solanum verecundum

Description. Shrub to small tree, 4 - 14 m tall. Stems densely pubescent with persistent short-stalked porrect - stellate to somewhat peltate trichomes 0.2 - 0.3 mm in diameter, the rays 10 - 12, fused for less than half their length, the midpoint sometimes a short stub to 0.5 mm long; new growth densely pubescent with porrect-stellate trichomes like those of the stems, these drying pale golden-brown. Bark of older stems reddish gold from the persistent trichomes. Sympodial units plurifoliate, the branching dichasial. Leaves simple, 6 - 19 cm long, 2 - 10 cm wide, elliptic or narrowly elliptic, membranous or chartaceous, discolorous (" silvery beneath " fide Bohs 3361), the upper surfaces moderately and evenly pubescent with sessile and short-stalked porrect-stellate trichomes with up to 15 rays, the rays fused only in their lower part near the midpoint, the midpoint to 0.2 mm long, the lamina visible, the lower surfaces densely pubescent with short-stalked porrect-stellate trichomes to 0.4 mm in diameter with up to 16 rays, the rays fused only in the center, the midpoint to 0.05 mm long, the lamina not visible; primary veins 12 - 15 pairs, not markedly impressed above, densely covered by pubescence beneath; base acute to somewhat attenuate onto the petiole; margins entire, plane; apex acute to acuminate; petioles 1 - 1 - 3 (- 4) cm long, densely pubescent with porrect-stellate to peltate trichomes like those of the stems. Inflorescences terminal, 7 - 10 cm long, many times branched, with 100 + flowers, densely pubescent with porrect-stellate to peltate trichomes like those of the stems; peduncle 2 - 5 cm long; pedicels 5 - 6 mm long, 1 - 1.5 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 1.5 mm in diameter at the apex, stout, nodding at anthesis, densely pubescent like the inflorescence axes, articulated at the base; pedicel scars closely and more or less regularly spaced ca. 1 mm apart. Buds globose, the corolla strongly exserted from the calyx tube just before anthesis. Flowers all perfect, 5 - merous. Calyx tube 1 - 1.5 mm long, cup-shaped, narrowing gradually to the pedicel, the lobes 1 - 1.5 mm long, deltate, abaxially densely pubescent with porrect-stellate to slightly peltate trichomes like those of the inflorescence, the adaxial surface sparsely pubescent with sessile porrect-stellate trichomes. Corolla 1 - 1.2 cm in diameter, white, stellate, lobed ca. 3 / 4 of the way to the base, the lobes 4 - 5 mm long, 2 - 2.5 mm wide, reflexed at anthesis, the tips and margins densely pubescent on the abaxial surface with porrect-stellate trichomes with ca. 10 rays like those of the inflorescence, the adaxial surface glabrous, the tips and margins with a few sessile porrect-stellate trichomes. Filament tube minute, the free portion of the filaments ca. 1 mm long, glabrous; anthers 2.5 - 3 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide, ellipsoidal, loosely connivent, yellow, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age. Ovary densely pubescent with multangulate to porrect-stellate trichomes; style 6 - 6.5 mm long, densely pubescent along its entire length with porrect-stellate 4 - 6 - rayed trichomes ca. 0.2 mm long, the midpoints elongate and equal to the rays; stigma capitate, the surface minutely papillose. Fruit a globose berry, 0.5 - 1 cm in diameter, bright orange when ripe, the pericarp thin, not shiny, unevenly pubescent with multangulate trichomes with rays of many varying lengths, appearing scurfy; fruiting pedicels 0.9 - 1 cm long, 1.5 - 2 mm in diameter at the base, woody, erect. Seeds> 100 per berry, 1 - 1.5 mm long, 1 - 1.5 mm wide, flattened-reniform, pale golden-yellow, the surfaces minutely pitted, the testal cells square.