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Family: Solanaceae
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J. Edmonds & I. Friis (2006) Solanum Flora of Somalia 3: 206-219 Plants highly branched shrubsm up to 1 m tall. Stems and branches armed with straight or slightly curved, spreading dark brown prickles 0.6-0.9 cm long, prickles covered with stellate hairs up to 3/4 their length, bark dark grey to red brown, young branches pubescent with white stellate hairs. Leaves alternate, of comparable size on the same plant; petioles 0.5-1.4 cm long, unarmed, covered with white or grey stellate hairs, rarely glabrescent; blades ovate, 2-3.5(04) cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide, entire to sinuate or lobed with 1-3 lobes on each side, upper and lower surfaces with scattered stellate hairs, midribs often armed. Inflorescences lateral, with 5-7 flowers, umbel-like; peduncles 0-0.4 cm long; pedicels 0.5-0.8 cm long, elongating to 1.5 cm in fruit. Calyces about 0.5 cm long,with long tubes and short, rounded lobes, enlarging slight in fruit; corollas blue-violet, rotate, 2-2.5 cm in diameter; stamens unequal, arcuate, 1 filament about 5 mm long, 4 about 1 mm long, anthers all about 6 mm long;styles curved like the anthers and exceeding them by about 2 mm. Fruits yellow to orange yellow, often turning black when dry if collected when unripe, globose, about 1.5 cm in diamter, dry and brittle when ripe; seeds shiny, black. Solanum melastomoides grwos in open acacia-Commiphora bushalnd, often in disturbed places, at 230-1500 m. It is known from regions N1-3, C2, and S1,2 of the Flora of Somalia and Ethiopia. ©Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; reproduced with permission. Habit: highly branched shrubs, up to 1 m tall, stems and branches with straight to slightly curved dark brown prickles that are covered with stellate hairs for up to 3/4 their length. Leaves: similar in length throughout a plant, blades ovate, 2-3.5 cm long, with scattered stellate hairs on both surfaces and, often, prickles over the midrib, margins entire or with 1-3 lobes per side. Inflorescences lateral, with 5-7 flowers. Flowers 2-2.5 cm in diameter, rotate, stamens unequal, 1 filamen being about 5 mm long, the others about 1 mm long, the anthers all about 6 mm long. Fruits yellow to orange-yellow when mature, globose about 1.5 cm in diameter, dry and brittle when ripe. Solanum melastomoides grwos in open acacia-Commiphora bushalnd, often in disturbed places, at 230-1500 m. It is known from regions N1-3, C2, and S1,2 of the Flora of Somalia and Ethiopia |