Genus Solanum L.
L., Sp. Pi., ed. 1 (1753) 184; Gen. PI., ed. 5 (1754) 85.
Fam: Solanaceae Juss.
Genus: Solanum L.
English Name: Potato genus
Description:
Annual to perennial herbaceous plants, subshrubs, shrubs or small trees, bare or covered with glandular simple or stellate hairs branching, sometimes with spines. Stems erect, lying, pushing up out climbing or creeping. Leaves on stems or seated, successive or opposite, simple up to feather-like devided or complex feather-like. Blossoms in umbel-like, racemose besom-like, sometimes helix wrapped inflorescences, located in the axils of leaves or leaves on top, rarely single. Colyx bell-shaped, shallow or deep 5 - 10 slices; in mature fruit growing or not and fitting for him. Corolla correctly, rarely slightly irregular, discoid, short tube; crown round, to pentagonal star, 5 - 10 shars; shares spreading or curving back, equal in length or two lower larger . Stamens 5 - 8, longer than the corolla, equal length or one of them two times as long; handles fused with the upper corolla tube; anthers approximated cylindrical to ovoid or conical column around the bar, rarely apart, yellow, blue or purple without appendages, hinged at the top with two pores, rarely with a side slit. Ovary 2 - 4 nests, the ovules numerous. The bar equals stamens, stigma headed. The fruit juicy to dry, 2 - 4 -well strawberry. Seeds small, spherical, ovoid or to blocky, flattened, surface finely verrucose to net wrinkled.
Table for determining the types
1. Plants with straight or curved spines ............................................................................................................................................................. 2
1* Plants without spines. .................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
2 . Blossoms yellow . . ....................................................................................................................... * Prickly nightshade - S. cornutum Lam.
2* Blossoms purple, violet ………………....................................................................................................................................................….3
3. Four yellow stamens, equal length, one violet to 2 times longer than the other. Inflorescences 3 - 6 cm long stem ............................................................................................................................................... * Mexican nightshade - S. heterodoxum Dunal
3* All three yellow stamens equal in length. Inflorescences sessile or single color, rarely 2 - 3 (5) ………...............................................................4
4. Stems with numerous spines. Calyx 5 - 7 mm long. Fruit 2 - 3 cm in diameter……........................….. * African nightshade - S. sodomeum L.
4* Stems with few to single spines. Calyx 10 - 15 mm long. Fruit 5 - 20 cm long and 5: -10 cm wide .…….............. * Eggplant - S. melongena L.
5 . The leaves imparipinnate. Plants with underground heels, ending at the top with clubs ……................…......... Potato tubers * - S tuberosum L.
5* Leaves entire or feathery devided. Plants without heels. …………................................................................................................…………..6
6. Blossoms white …….................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
6* Blossoms violet or purple …………............................................................................................................................................………… 10
7. Inflorescences with 3 - 5 blossoms; carpophore stems equal to or longer than the inflorescences axis. Fruit red, yellow or orange ..................... 8
7* Inflorescences with 5 - 10 blossoms, peduncle 1.5 - 3 times shorter than the axis of the inflorescence. Fruit black or green ………….............. 9
8. Plant with simple and glandular hairs spread. Ribs on stems and branches thin, rounded ...……............ 3. Nightshade Yellow - S. luteum Mill.
8* Plants with simple with simple hairs lies close. The ribs on the stem and branchings pointed and toothed ....... Nightshade - S. alatum Moench.
9. Plant spread densely hairy with glandular hairs. …………..................................................…. 2. Shultizievo nightshade - S. schultesii Opiz
9* Plant fitting fiber without glandular hairs or nearly bare one .............................................................................. Black nightshade S. nigrum L.
10. Annuals to perennials with branched stellate hairs. Blossoms single or 2 - 3 in a inflorescence. Fruit over 5 inches long and wide ................................................................................................................................................................................. *Eggplant - S. melongena L.
10* Scramble subshrubs without asterisk-like hairs. Over 20 blossoms in the inflorescence. Fruit 10 -15 mm long, 7.5 - 10 mm wide; ..................................................................................................................................................................... Red nightshade - 5. S. dulcamara L.
References: „Флора на НР България”, том IX, БАН, София, (1989)Distribution in Bulgaria: (Conspectus of the Bulgarian Vascular Flora) = conspectus&gs_l= Zlc.
Species:
Solanum dulcamara L.
Solanum luteum Mill.
Solanum nigrum L.
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