A revision of Lycianthes (Solanaceae) in tropical Asia

Abstract

The genus Lycianthes (Dunal) Hassl. (Solanaceae) has in the past been treated as a section of the large genus Solanum L. but is more closely related to Capsicum L. Outside of the Americas, where the highest species diversity occurs, the genus is found in tropical and subtropical habitats from India to Japan and the Philippines, including the islands of Indonesia, New Guinea and the Solomons. The 19 species from Australia, New Guinea and the Pacific were treated in ‘PhytoKeys 209’. Here I treat the remaining 10 species occurring across Asia; including two native species, L. biflora (Lour.) Bitter and L. oliveriana (Lauterb. & K.Schum) Bitter, and one cultivated species, L. rantonnetii (Carrière) Bitter that were also included in the earlier work. The Asian species treated here occupy a wide range of forested and disturbed habitats and are diverse in habit, ranging from epiphytic vines to small or medium sized trees, shrubs or creeping herbs. Many of the species are weedy plants of highly disturbed habitats and are best characterised as “ochlospecies”, with complex polymorphic variation. Lycianthes rantonnetii, a species native to southern South America, is recorded as cultivated in India and Pakistan, but may be more widespread than collections indicate. The history of taxonomic treatments of Lycianthes in Asia is discussed, along with details of morphology found in all species. All species are treated in full, with complete morphological descriptions, including synonymy, lecto- or neotypifications, discussions of ecology and vernacular names, distribution maps and preliminary conservation assessments (for all except the cultivated L. rantonnetii). Searchable lists of all specimens examined are presented as Suppl. materials 1, 2.