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Solanum (Latin, solamen, solace or quieting). Solanaceae. Nightshade. A vast group of temperate and tropical herbs, shrubs and even trees, comparatively poorly represented in temperate North America, of various horticultural adaptabilities, comprising ornamental subjects and also the potato, tomato, eggplant, ground cherry or physalis, red pepper or capsicum; also medicinal plants.
Leaves alternate: infl. mostly sympodial and therefore superaxillary or opposite the lvs.: corolla gamopetalous and rotate or shallow-campanulate, plaited in the bud, the limb angled or shallow-lobed; stamens usually 5, inserted on the throat of the corolla, the anthers narrower or elongated and connivent and mostly opening by an apical pore or slit; ovary usually 2-loculed, ripening into a berry which is sometimes inclosed in the persistent calyx; fls. white, purple or yellow.—Dunal, the latest monographer (DC. Prodr. 13, pt. 1). in 1852, recognized 901 species, and many species have been discovered since that time, the number now being estimated at about 1,200. Many new species have recently been described by Bitter in various volumes of Fedde, Rep. Nov. Sp. Reg. Veget. The genus finds its greatest extension in Trop. Amer. Of the vast number of species, barely 25 are of much account horticulturally, and half that number will comprise all the species that are popularly well known. One of these is the potato, Solanum tuberosum, one of the leading food plants of the human race. The genus seems to abound in plants with toxic properties, although its bad reputation in this respect is probably exaggerated. The species are herbs in temperate climates, but in warm countries many of them are shrubby and some are small trees. Many of them are climbers. It is impracticable to distribute the few cult. species into the various botanical groups of a great genus, and the following species are therefore assembled mainly on a horticultural plan. See Baker, Journ. Linn. Soc. 21, for account of the tuberiferous solanums. Other important papers on the tuberous species are Berthault, Recherches botaniques sur les varietes cultivees du Solanum tuberosum et les especes suavages de Solanum tuberiferes voisins, Ann. Sci. Agron. Ser. III. 6th annee 1911; Sutton, in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 38:1909; Wittmack, Berichti Deutsch. Bot. Gesellschaft 27:28, 1909, and Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbucher Zeitschrift 38: suppl. 5, 1909; Heckel, sur les Origines de la Pomme de Terre Cultivee, etc. Ann. de la Faculte des Sci. de Marseille 16:1906; Ballivian & Tovar, Noticia Historica y Classificacion de la Papa de Bolivia. 1914.
S. auriculatum, Ait., is allied to S. verbascifolium, and is sometimes mistaken for it. Lvs. 6-7 in. long, ovate-oblong, acuminate, entire, velvety-tomentose above with branched hairs, more densely so and paler below, axils furnished with small lvs.: corymbs sub- terminal, many-fld.; corolla violet, about 1/2 in. across: berry globose. Afr.—S. betaceum, Cav., is Cyphomandra, for which see Vol. II.—S. cernuum, Velloz. Shrub or small tree, with cyphomandra-like lvs. and the young parts clothed with chaffy hairs: fls. white: fr. globose, hairy, inclosed in the calyx. S. Brazil. B.M. 7491.—S. Commersonii, "Violet," which attracted much attention a few years ago, is S. tuberosum, being similar to, if not identical with the variety known as "Blue Giant."—S. corymbosum, Jacq. A fetid rather weak, unarmed, branched half-shrub: lvs. 2-5 in. long, glabrous except for the ciliate margins, ovate or lanceolate, entire or slightly lobed: fls. about 1/2 in. diam., blue or violet: fr. reddish orange, 1/4 – 2/3 in. diam. Native of Peru.—S. erectum is Cyphomandra betaceum.—S. Pierreanum, Paill. & Bois, has fr. the size of a walnut and shaped like a tomato, scarlet.—S. stoloniferum, Schlecht. & Bouche. Tuber-bearing: lvs. with 3-4 pairs of pinnae, the interposed ones very numerous; lfts. mostly subcordate at the base and acuminate at the apex, sparingly pubescent with scattered flattened hairs on the upper surface, usually only along the veins on the lower surface, but puberulent on both surfaces: calyx glabrous, the lobes about the length of the tube; corolla white.—S. tubingense and S. Darwinianum said to be graft hybrids of Lycopersicum esculentum and S. nigrum produced by Prof. Winkler of Tubingen. G.C. III. 50:161.—S. verbascifolium, Linn. Lvs. lanceolate-ovate, or ovate-oblong, entire, tomentose, without smaller lvs. in the axils: fls. rather small, white: fr. the size of a small cherry. Widely distributed in the tropics.
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