Jasmine Nightshade
| Jasmine Nightshade | ||||||||||||
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Jasmine Nightshade ( Solanum laxum ) |
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| Solanum laxum | ||||||||||||
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The jasmine-flowered nightshade ( Solanum laxum , syn. Solanum jasminoides ), also called potato shrub, is a plant species from the nightshade genus ( Solanum ) within the nightshade family (Solanaceae). The woody climber is originally native to South America and is often cultivated due to its showy flowers .
description
Vegetative characteristics
The jasmine-flowered nightshade is a woody climber whose base can reach more than 10 centimeters in diameter. The plant climbs by winding the leaf stalks around supports. The shoot axes are strongly angled zigzag, hairless or in the youth stage with simple, white, single-row trichomes less than 0.5 millimeters in length. New growth is hairless or finely to sparsely hairy. The bark of older branches is green or reddish green or, if the plant grows in direct sunlight, often purple-green.
The sympodial units contain many leaves . These are usually simple, only very rarely divided with one to four irregular lobes pinnately split. They are 1 to 5 inches long, 0.5 to 2 inches wide and are egg-shaped or elliptical to narrowly elliptical in shape. They are widest in the lower third. The surface of the membrane-like to membranous leaf blade is hairless or covered with a few single-row trichomes along the central axis, the underside is also hairless or hairy in the axils of the leaf veins with differently dense tufts of up to 1 millimeter long, simple, single-row trichomes. Four to six pairs of leaf veins emanate from the often keel-shaped central axis, which combine to form a strong and conspicuous circumferential vein near the edge. The base is cut off, often sloping and asymmetrical. To the front the leaf blades are pointed or pointed; if they are divided, the incisions between the lobes extend almost to the central axis, the lobes below are smaller. The leaf stalks are twisted and usually 0.4 to 2.5 inches long, but can also be longer. They are hairless or finely hairy along the notch on the top.
Inflorescences and flowers
The inflorescences are initially terminal, later also laterally. They are hairless, reach lengths of 5 centimeters and more, are usually divided two or three times, but can also be divided significantly more often and contain up to 50 flowers . The inflorescence stalk becomes 0.5 to 4 centimeters long, but is very variable in length depending on the size of the inflorescence and age. The flower stalks are hairless, 1 to 1.5 centimeters long, thread-like and less than 0.5 millimeters in diameter at the base. At flowering time they are nodding or protruding. At the base, the pedicel is angled and surrounded by a small envelope that leaves a small cone on the axis of the inflorescence. These cones are irregularly spaced about 2 to 6 millimeters apart.
The buds are slightly inflated and elliptical, they are broadest in the lower area. Even before the flowering period, the crown is well above the calyx . All flowers are fully developed and five-fold. The corolla-tube is 1 to 1.5 millimeters long, tubular to slightly flattened in shape and has 1 to 1.5 millimeters long, triangular calyx lobes that have an elongated tip about 1 millimeter long. Usually the calyx is hairless, only a few fine trichomes can sometimes be found at the tip. The crown is white or pale purple in color, wheel-shaped and star-shaped and lobed about half the length to the base. The crown is flat or the corolla lobes are slightly protruding during flowering. The diameter of the crown reaches 1.8 to 2.2 millimeters, the corolla lobes are 7 to 9 millimeters long and 5 to 6 millimeters wide. The top of the crown is hairless, on the underside there may be some fine, single-row trichomes that are no longer than 0.2 millimeters.
The tube created by the coalescence of the stamens is very fine, the stamens stand apart from one another within 1 to 1.5 millimeters, they are hairless or finely hairy on the inside. The anthers are 3.5 to 4 millimeters long, about 1 to 1.5 millimeters wide, elliptical, arrow-shaped at the base and slightly inclined. They open via pores at the tips, and these pores expand into slits even with age. The ovary is hairless. The stylus is 7 to 8 millimeters long and hairy within the stamen with up to 0.2 millimeter long trichomes. The scar is a finely papillary area at the tip of the stylus, occasionally it is somewhat bilobed or split.
Fruits and seeds
The fruit is a blackish-purple, spherical berry with a diameter of about 1 centimeter. The pericarp is thin and shiny and hairless. On the fruits, the flower stalks extend to 1.2 to 1.5 centimeters, measure 0.5 millimeters in diameter, are hanging and not noticeably lignified. Each fruit contains around ten to 20 seeds . These are about 3 millimeters long and 2.5 millimeters wide, flat kidney-shaped and pale straw-colored. The surface is finely grained, the cells of the seed surface are pentagonal.
Distribution and locations
The natural distribution area of the species extends from the southeastern Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul to the mouth of the Río de la Plata in Argentina and Uruguay , as well as to Paraguay . The species is often naturalized as a cultural refugee in both temperate and subtropical areas . The locations range from just above sea level to altitudes over 500 meters. In the natural range, the species can be found in the Atlantic rainforest, in Araucaria forests, gallery forests and open forest edges. At suitable locations, the naturalized representatives are also resistant to light frosts.
