Streptosolen jamesonii (Benth.) Miers

Flora Zambesiaca. Vol. 8, Part 4. Solanaceae. Gonçalves AE. 2005

Morphology General Habit

Much branched, evergreen, handsome shrub, sometimes climbing to 3 m high.

Morphology Branches

Branches scabro-pubescent with sticky gland-headed hairs.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves rugose, small, ovate or elliptic, entire.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers in great profusion, in leafy, corymbiform-paniculiform, terminal inflorescences.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx tubular-campanulate, shortly 5-cleft; corolla very showy, shining bright orange-yellow to orange-red, with a tube to 15 mm, spirally twisted below, widening above, and a spreading limb with 5 obtuse lobes; stamens 4, didynamous; ovary usually stipitate.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Capsule somewhat leathery, 2-valved

Note

Common name: “fire bush” or “marmalade bush”.

Distribution

Native to Colombia and Ecuador, now cultivated as a garden ornamental. Zimbabwe

Solanaceae, Jennifer M Edmonds. Oliganthes, Melongena & Monodolichopus, Maria S. Vorontsova & Sandra Knapp. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2012

Type

Type: Ecuador, Loxa, Hartweg 818 in herb. Bentham and not Hooker (K!, lecto. designated here) [See notes below]

Morphology General Habit

Evergreen erect or scandent shrubs 1–3(–6.5) m high with much branched scabrid, sparsely pilose main stems; young stems villous

Morphology Leaves

Leaves coriaceous and rugose, dark green, elliptic or ovate, 1.2–4 × 0.6–1.8 cm, bases cuneate, often decurrent, margins entire, apices acute to obtuse, upper and lower surfaces somewhat scabrid, lower surface moderately to densely pilose/villous especially on veins and midribs, upper surface puberulous; petioles (0–)3–12 mm long

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescences terminal subcorymbose leaf-opposed cymes, usually forming many(–50+) flowered clusters; pedicels usually erect sometimes reflexed, 3–9 mm long, glandular-puberulous

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx 4.5–10 mm long, pubescent as pedicels, terminating in four or five short broadly triangular, acute and sometimes unequal teeth 1.5–3 × 1–2.5 mm, densely glandular-puberulous

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla red, orange or yellow, infundibuliform, tubular or trumpet-shaped, 2–3 cm long and 1.1–1.8 cm diameter at throat, basal tube spirally twisted and tapering towards the calyx, 1.2–2 cm long, glandular-puberulous, terminating in five broad obtuse lobes 3–8 × 4–10 mm which partially reflexed together with apical part of the tube and densely puberulous with small glands; throat and inner lobe surfaces covered with small glands

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Stamens with unequal filaments, two lower free for 1–1.2 cm, two upper free for 1–3.5 mm; anthers unequal, yellow, lateral pair smaller 1–1.3 × 1.2–1.8 mm, with only one theca fully developed, posterior pair larger, 1–2 × 1.6–2.5 mm, sparsely pilose

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Ovary

Ovary ovoid, 1.2–2 × 0.8–1.6 mm, smooth, glabrous below with scattered long filamentous eglandular hairs at apex; disc ± 0.8–2 mm diameter; style 1.4–1.7 cm long, usually included; stigma 0.7–2 mm broad, often visible in corolla throat surrounded by the four anthers

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit smooth, light brown, ovoid dehiscent bivalvate capsules, 3.5–4 × 3 mm, valves often bifid and reflexed apically, usually wholly enclosed by accrescent persistent calyx. Seeds brown, cuboid to ovoid, 0.5–1 × 1 mm

Figures

Fig 6, p 33

Ecology

Widely cultivated, now occurring as occasional escape in gardens, on roadsides and near rocky pools; 900–2200 m

Conservation

Widespread; least concern (LC)

Note

Apart from their distinctive twisted corollas, plants of this species often exhibit a characteristic pubescence. The pedicels and external calyx and corolla surfaces in particular, are usually densely covered with short spreading few-celled hairs with distinctive brown ovoid glandular heads. This pubescence is evident on all African specimens examined as well as on the Jameson specimen of S. benthamii. However, it is replaced by dense multicellular and mainly eglandular hairs on the type of the synonymous Browallia jamesonii ( Hartweg 818, K!), while a few other specimens, collected from Peru, Ecuador and Colombia and with slightly larger flowers, also exhibit this atypical pubescence. Further work on this genus, particularly in its native South America, might well show that the variation noted warrants formal taxonomic recognition. The plants are bird-pollinated. The typification of this species is complicated. Bentham in Dunal (1846) cited the two syntypes Jameson s.n. and Hartweg 818 for his species Browallia jamesonii. Miers (1850) later decided that the features exhibited by this species should be recognised generically and using Browallia jamesonii as the basionym he described Streptosolen jamesonii, citing two specimens from “herb. Hook.”, namely Hartweg 818 and Seemann 872. Since this species was based on Bentham’s Browallia jamesonii, the second specimen cited by Miers (Sasaranga around Loxam, Seemann 872 [in herb. Hooker, (K!)] was not cited by Bentham and is not a syntype. The Hartweg 818 specimen is therefore the holotype of Browallia jamesonii, and the type on which Streptosolen jamesonii was based. However, there are two Hartweg 818 specimens in the Kew Herbarium. One is composed of a single shoot as part of a mixed sheet of specimens, and is in Herb. Hooker (dated 1867); this is only annotated with ‘Peru’ which has been crossed out and relabelled ‘Ecuador’. The other is a more complete specimen which is in Herb. Bentham (dated 1854), and is annotated ‘A shrub 4–6 ft high. Mountains of Paccha’. Neither specimen is annotated with ‘Loxa’ as cited by both Bentham (1846) and Miers (1850). Bentham did not specify the herbarium from which his syntype was described, but it is likely to have been his own. Miers probably saw both sheets at Kew, as he used the plant habit description given on the Bentham sheet in his generic description of Streptosolen (p. 207). This Bentham sheet of Hartweg 818 rather than the Hooker sheet that he cited has therefore been selected as the lectotype of his species Streptosolen jamesonii. Miers (1850) also described a second species of Streptosolen: S. benthamii citing the herb. Hooker specimen Jameson from “Nova Granada” with the same collection details as that given for the syntype of Browallia jamesonii. This specimen is thus both a syntype of Browallia jamesonii and the holotype of Streptosolen benthamii. There are two Herb. Hooker Jameson specimens on different sheets at Kew; both are annotated as Browallia and both sheets are composed of several specimens. The specimens are all conspecific, but only one – an apical fragment which looks as though it was originally part of the larger specimen on the second sheet– is accompanied by a note containing the cited collection details; this has been selected as the syntype of Browallia jamesonii.

Distribution

Flora districts: K4 T3 T7 Range: Originally from South America, escaped and naturalised in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe

Distribution

Biogeografic region: Andean. Elevation range: 1480–2900 m a.s.l. Cultivated in Colombia. Naturalised in Colombia. Colombian departments: Antioquia, Bogotá DC, Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Putumayo, Quindío.

Habit

Shrub.

Ecology

Habitat according IUCN Habitats Classification: forest and woodland, savanna, shrubland, wetlands (inland), artificial - terrestrial.

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident

Bernal, R., G. Galeano, A. Rodríguez, H. Sarmiento y M. Gutiérrez. 2017. Nombres Comunes de las Plantas de Colombia. http://www.biovirtual.unal.edu.co/nombrescomunes/

Vernacular

mermelada, milflores, peruana, sandiego, tamarindo, tamaris

Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Distribution

Cultivada y naturalizada en Colombia; Alt. 1480 - 2900 m.; Andes.

Morphology General Habit

Arbusto

Use Environmental

Environmental uses.