Herbs, perennial, erect, sparsely to moderately armed, to 1 m, prickles cream to yellowish, straight or slightly curved, to 15 mm, nearly glabrous or sparsely to densely pubescent, hairs yellowish, sessile to short-stalked, stellate, (4–)6–8-rayed, central ray 1–2-celled and longer than lateral rays. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1–6 cm; blade simple, broadly ovate, 7–22 × 8–18 cm, margins shallowly to deeply lobed with 2–5 lobes per side, lobe margins entire to coarsely lobed, base truncate to cuneate and often oblique. Inflorescences extra-axillary, forked to several times branched, to 15-flowered, 7–15 cm. Pedicels 1–2 cm in flower, curved downward and to ca. 2.4 cm in fruit. Flowers radially symmetric; calyx not accrescent, unarmed or sparsely prickled, 7–13 mm, densely stellate-pubescent, lobes ovate-lanceolate; corolla lavender, stellate to stellate-pentagonal or rotate-stellate, 2–4.4 cm diam., with sparse to moderate interpetalar tissue at margins and base of lobes; stamens equal; anthers narrow and tapered, 4–10 mm, dehiscent by terminal pores; ovary glabrous. Berries yellow, subglobose, 1.8–3.5 × 2–4 cm, glabrous, without sclerotic granules. Seeds yellow, flattened, ca. 2 × 2.5 mm, minutely pitted. 2n = ca. 72.
Phenology: Flowering May–Aug.
Habitat: Disturbed areas, peanut and cotton fields, roadsides, grazed pastures, urban waste areas.
Elevation: 90–200 m.
Distribution
Ala., Fla., Ga., Miss.
Discussion
Solanum perplexum is similar to S. dimidiatum and was placed in synonymy with S. dimidiatum by W. G. D’Arcy (1974). The two species can be distinguished by their indumentum [golden stellate hairs with six to eight (rarely as few as four) lateral rays with the central ray one- or two-celled and longer than lateral rays in S. perplexum versus whitish stellate hairs with six to ten (rarely as few as four) lateral rays with the central ray one-celled and equal to or shorter than lateral rays in S. dimidiatum], the larger prickles on the stems and leaves (up to 15 mm in S. perplexum versus up to 6.5 mm in S. dimidiatum), and the larger leaves (up to 22 × 18 cm in S. perplexum versus up to 16 × 10 cm in S. dimidiatum).
Solanum perplexum occurs mainly in the region where the borders of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia meet, with a single outlying population known from western Mississippi.
Selected References
None.