呂宋茄

Armed shrubs or subshrubs 0.5-1 m tall, stellate-tomentose, prickles short, straight or curved to 3.5 mm long; stems terete, tomentose, glabrescent, young growth sparingly prickly. Leaves solitary, entire or obscurely sinuate, lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 4-15 cm long, 1.5-5 cm wide, apically acute, basally cuneate, sparsely tomentose on emerging, glabrescent, drying discolorous; petiole 1-3 cm long. Inflorescences extra-axillary or terminal, racemose panicles to 3 cm long; peduncle 1-1.8 cm long, sometimes 1-2-branched, tomentose; pedicel 5 mm long; calyx campanulate 3 mm wide, the lobes oblong-ovate, 1.5 mm long, acute or obtuse, tomentose; corolla violet, 6-8 mm long, the lobes oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 5-6 mm long, pubescent outside as on calyx; filaments short, anthers lanceolate, narrowed upward, 4 mm long; ovary glabrous. Berry red, globose, 6-10 mm across, glabrous; fruiting pedicel 1-2.5 cm long, tomentose to glabrate; fruiting calyx stellate hairy; seeds reniform or discoid, 3 mm across.

Restricted to Taiwan and the Philippine Islands. In Taiwan recorded from near the sea on offshore islands of Lanyu and Botel Tobago. Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.

The plants from Taiwan correspond to Solanum luzonense var. glabrum Merrill, Philipp. J. Sci. 13: 59. 1918. which may specifically distinct from the typical variety.