atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

Solanum melongena L. "egg plant", "aubergine", "brinjal"
Recent introduction. S. Asia. Rare. Erect, stellate-tomentose, weakly-perennial,
branching herb or subshrub, 0.5 to 1.5 m high, the stems sometimes prickly and all parts
covered with a gray tomentum; leaves, 6 to 25 cm long and 4 to 15 cm wide, alternate,
ovate to elliptic oblong, obtuse to acute, base obtuse to subcordate, usually shallowly
sinuately 2- to 4-lobed, both surfaces densely or sparingly stellate-tomentose; petioles, 1
to 10 cm long; inflorescences, solitary or 2- to 5-flowered cymes, opposite to subopposite
the leaf axils, the lower flowers bisexual the upper ones male; pedicels, 1 to 3 cm long,
elongating and enlarging in fruit; calyx, about 2 cm long, narrowly 5- to 7-lobed, lobes,
1 to 1.5 cm long, acuminate, enlarging and sometimes splitting in fruit, stellate-hairy,
persistent; corolla, 3 to 5 cm in diameter, 5- to 6-lobed, campanulate, lobes about the
length of the tube, broadly-triangular, incuwed, hairy beneath, glabrous within, pale
violet to purplish-violet; stamens, 5 to 6, about 1 cm long, free erect, yellow, with short
filaments; anthers, 5 to 8 mm long, yellow; fruit, 5 to 30 cm long and 3 to 8 cm across,
pendent, highly variable in shape depending on the cultivar, subglobose, oblong,
cylindric or obovoid or pyriform, a fleshy berry with leathery skin, smooth, shiny,
purple-black to purple, white, yellowish or striped; seeds, many, compressed, pale
yellow or light brown, Food plant in home gardens. 5, 6.
Solanum tuberosum L. "potato", "Irish potato"
Recent introduction. S. America-Andes Mts. Rare. Branched, sprawling annual
herb, up to 1 m high, with a mass of fine, fibrous, adventitious roots and swollen stem
tubers borne on underground stolons; leaves, 10 to 25 cm long, pinnate, with small
interjected leaflets between larger leaflets (main pinnae); larger leaflets, 5 to 9, ovate;
inflorescences, leaf-opposed, few-flowered cymose panicles; peduncles, 5 to 10 cm long;
calyx lobes, 5 to 8 mm long, lanceolate; corolla, about 2 cm in diameter, subrotate,
white or pale violet to purple or bluish; fruit, 1.5 to 2 cm in diameter, subglobose, a
small inedible berry; seeds, suborbicular to subreniform, green or yellowish. Immature
food plant at Location. 5, 6, 7.
STERCULIACEAE (Cocoa Family)
Waltheria indica L.
syns. W. americana L. ; W. elliptica Cav.
" waltheria"
Recent introduction. Pantropical. Occasional. Downy perennial subshrub, 0.3 to 1
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m high, with erect, branched tomentose Gems and woody near base; leaves, 1 to 6 cm
long Hnd 0.5 to 3 cm wide, alternate, ovate-oblong, crenate or serrate, velvety-pubescent
with mixed stellate and simple hairs, prominently veined; petioles, about 1 to 1.5 cm
long; stipules, narrow, caducous; inflorescences, axillary, dense cymose clusters;