SOLANUM PHYSALIFOLIUM

Family and Genus:- See- SOLANACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Solanum niodobaccatum

Meaning:- Solanum (L) Comforter, an ancient Latin used by the Roman naturalist

and philosopher Pliny.

Physalifolium (Gr) With foliage resembling that of Physalis,

General description:- A variable, low to medium, somewhat glandular hairy

annual.

Stems:-

1) Spreading to erect, often blackish.

Leaves:-

1) Alternate, simple, 2·5-7 x 2-4·5(-6) cm, ovate-rhombic to lanceolate, margins

sinuate-dentate.

Flowers:-

1) 10-14 mm Æ. joined together by 5-10 into a contracted raceme resembling a

simple umbel.

2) Corolla, with 5 petals partly fused into very short tube, with spread out to

inverted, folded lobes, acute at their tip.

3) Calyx, with 5 partly fused, oval to rounded sepals, increasing a little at fruiting

time.

4) Stamens, 5, with a short filament, and yellow anthers, brought close to form a

kind of tube containing the style..

Fruit:-

1) Berry, spherical, from 6-10 mm Æ, initially green, then black and dull at maturity.

Key features:-

1) Having a glandular indumentum.

2) Small, cream-coloured flowers suffused with violet.

3) Accrescent sepals, halfway enclosing the green to dark violet berry

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Seasonally damp habitats in olive groves, field margins, roadsides,

gardens and ruderal habitats. 0-800 m.

Distribution:- A South American alien. Very rare on Crete currently known only

from the Lasithi plain.

Flowering time:- Much of the year, but mainly May-Sept.

Photos by:- Kind permission of Saxifraga - Free Nature Images

Courtesy of Wiki-Commons