Kangaroo apple
| Kangaroo apple | ||||||||||||
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Kangaroo apple ( Solanum aviculare ) |
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| Solanum aviculare | ||||||||||||
| G. Forest. |
The kangaroo apple ( Solanum aviculare ) is in Australia and New Zealand -based plants art from the genus Solanum ( Solanum ). Within the genus, the species is classified in the subgenus Archaesolanum .
description
Vegetative characteristics
The kangaroo apple is a perennial shrub usually 2, rarely between 1 and 4 m high, with soft branches that only lignify near the base. With age, the plants become very spacious without forming offshoots. The branches are angled and grow upwards. Except for fine, glandular trichomes on the shoot tips and the tips of the crown , the plant is hairless. The sympodial units are many-leaved.
The leaves are pinnate to simple, the tip is pointed to pointed, the base is obliquely wedge-shaped. Pinnate leaves are broadly elliptical to egg-shaped, 15 to 30 cm long and 10 to 15 cm wide, the three to eleven individual leaf lobes are lanceolate to elliptical, 1 to 10 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide. The mostly well-developed and not winged petioles are 1 to 1.5 cm long.
Inflorescences and flowers
The inflorescences standing in the branch branches or leaf axils are coils of a few, up to ten flowers . Often the inflorescence forks at the base, in the fork itself there is also a flower. A further branching of the inflorescence occurs only rarely. An inflorescence stalk is often missing, the inflorescence axis is up to 15 cm long.
The nodding flowers are on flower stalks that are 1.5 to 2 cm long at the time of flowering. The flower buds are elliptical and stand relatively early over the calyx tube. The calyx is bell-shaped, 3 to 4 mm long and set with roughly triangular calyx tips. The 3 to 4 cm diameter, star-shaped to slightly bell-shaped crown is pale purple with a dark purple, star-shaped area in the middle. The wide corolla lobes are fused together with a fabric that extends beyond the actual tips of the petals.
The strong stamens are 3 mm long, the elongated anthers are 4 mm long and directed straight up. They open through pores at the tips, the pores are elongated into short slits. The ovary is smooth, the pale and also hairless stylus is about 7 to 8 mm long, slightly curved and upright. The scar is green or pale.
Fruits and seeds
The fruits are 2 cm long and 1 to 1.5 cm wide berries with an inverted ovoid to ellipsoid shape. They ripen orange-red to scarlet and are juicy. Each fruit contains 200 to 600 seeds and twelve to 60 stone cells . The seeds have a size of 1.5 to 2 mm, they are bright red or brownish red in color, inverted ovoid or broadly inverted ovoid, the seed surface is fine and concentric, granular-reticulate. The inconspicuous, rounded stone cells are usually 0.75 to 1.5 mm in size, only rarely larger.
Other specifications
The kangaroo apple contains a high proportion of solasodine , which is used as the basis for the production of steroids . This type of plant is also grown for this purpose.
The base chromosome number is .
Occurrence
The species is widespread on the east coast of Australia , is also found on the mountain peaks of New Guinea and New Zealand , and it has also been naturalized in the south of Australia. It grows in humid areas in disturbed locations.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e PBI Solanum: Solanum aviculare , online, accessed February 2, 2008.
- ^ V. Bradley et al .: A Survey of Australian Solanum Plants for Potentially Useful Sources of Solasodine. Australian Journal of Botany. 26/6/1978. Pp. 723-754. doi : 10.1071 / BT9780723
Web links
- Solanum aviculare at Useful Tropical Plants.