16. Lycianthes (Dunal) Hassler, Annuaire Conserv. Jard. Bot. Genève. 20: 180. 1917. name conserved.
[I]
Potato bush, ginger leaf [Genus Lycium and Greek anthos, flower, presumably alluding to resemblance of spinescent L. lycioides]
Ellen A. Dean
Solanum Linnaeus subsect. Lycianthes Dunal in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 13(1): 29. 1852
Herbs, perennial, or shrubs [vines, epiphytes], rhizomatous or stoloniferous [tuberous roots], hairs simple or branched [stellate], glandular or eglandular. Stems creeping, erect, or ascending, branched. Leaves alternate or geminate; blade margins usually entire and undulate-wavy [remotely dentate]. Inflorescences axillary, solitary flowers or subumbellate. Flowers 5-merous, radially symmetric except for unequal stamens; calyx accrescent or somewhat accrescent, campanulate to obconic (becoming rotate to bowl-shaped in fruit), 10-veined, 5 or 10 veins often extending into 5 or 10 appendages that protrude from calyx below truncate rim; corolla white to pale yellow, or purplish to blue (with a yellow center in L. rantonnetii) [sometimes with contrasting green or purple markings], radial, rotate, or reflexed [campanulate], entire or lobed; stamens inserted near base of corolla limb, equal or unequal; anthers basifixed, lanceolate to elliptic, dehiscing by pores [by longitudinal slits]; ovary 2-carpellate; style straight or curved; stigma capitate to slightly lobed [deeply lobed]. Fruits berries, globose to ellipsoid, fleshy or juicy. Seeds lenticular-compressed to round or angular, (sclerotic granules sometimes present in outer part of mesocarp [these rarely enclosing seeds]). x = 12.
Species 150–200 (2 in the flora): introduced; Mexico, Central America, South America, se Asia, Pacific Islands, Australia.
The flowers of Lycianthes often open and close daily for two to five days in a row; outside the flora area, they are sometimes open only in early morning.
SELECTED REFERENCE Bitter, F. A. G. 1919. Die Gattung Lycianthes. Bremen. [Preprinted from Abh. Naturwiss. Vereins Bremen 24: 292–520. 1920.]
