Solanum novomexicanum

Herbs, annual, spreading, sparsely to moderately armed, 0.3–0.7 m, prickles whitish or yellowish, straight, tapered, 3–8 mm, usually 20 or fewer per cm of stem, densely pubescent with stipitate-glandular hairs 0.2–0.4 mm, abaxial leaf surfaces also with scattered, sessile, 4–6-rayed, stellate hairs, central ray equal to lateral rays. Leaves petiolate; petiole 2–7 cm; blade simple to compound, broadly ovate to deltate, 4–11 × 4–8 cm, margins bipinnately lobed to divided with 2–3 main leaflets per side, leaflets with obtuse or rounded lobes, base truncate. Inflorescences extra-axillary, unbranched, 5–9-flowered, 4–10 cm. Pedicels 1–1.5 cm in flower, erect and 1–1.5 cm in fruit. Flowers bilaterally symmetric; calyx accrescent and tightly covering fruit, densely prickly, 4.5–6.5 mm, densely glandular-pubescent, lobes lanceolate; corolla violet or blue, pentagonal-stellate, with narrowly deltate lobes, 1–1.5 cm diam., with sparse interpetalar tissue; stamens unequal, lowermost much longer and curved; anthers narrow and tapered, dehiscent by terminal pores, short anthers 2–4 mm, longer anther 3.5–5 mm; ovary glabrous. Berries brown, globose, 1–1.2 cm diam., glabrous, dry, without sclerotic granules. Seeds dark brown, flattened, 2.5–3 × 2–2.5 mm, reticulately wrinkled or merely undulate.

Phenology: Flowering Jun–Sep.
Habitat: Gravelly or sandy soils, open hillsides, arroyo banks, roadsides.
Elevation: 1900–2300 m.

N.Mex.

Discussion

Solanum novomexicanum is uncommon and endemic to the mountains of northcentral New Mexico.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa