Sonoran Nightshade

Description

Annual herbs, taprooted, without tubers or stolons, 20-70 cm tall, pubescent, armed with prickles 4-9 mm long; hairs up to 0.7 mm long, simple over most of the plant, frequently gland-tipped.-LEAVES: alternate, deeply dissected, bipinnatifid to tripinnatifid or compound, broadly ovate, 5-13 cm long, with stellate trichomes and simple, gland-tipped trichomes on the upper and lower surface, the stellate trichomes with 4-5 rays, the main veins armed with scattered prickles; petioles 2.5-7 cm long, armed with prickles; base of leaf or leaflets variable, acute to subcordate; apices of ultimate lobes obtuse to acute.-INFLORESCENCE: 3-8 cm long, raceme-like monochasialcymes, 6-10-flowered, peduncles 0.5-3 cm long.-FLOWERS: somewhat zygomorphic, perfect or having nonfunctional stigmas and abortive ovules in the terminal portions of the inflorescence; pedicel 0.5-1.5 cm long; calyx campanulate, the tube 1.8-2.2 mm long, the lobes linear-lanceolate, 5-12 mm long; corollas stellate, 1.3-1.8 cm wide, yellow; stamens unequal; anthers oblong, of three sizes, the lowermost extended anther 6.5-8.6 mm long, occasionally purple-tinged, incurved at the tip, the two adjacent shorter anthers 5.6-7.5 mm long, also terminally incurved, the uppermost shortest pair 4.5-6 mm long; filaments ca. 1/4 as long as the anthers; styles slender, extending out beyond the anthers; stigmas to 0.5 mm across.-FRUITS: broadly ovoid, 1.1-1.4 cm in diam., tightly invested by the densely armed accresent tube of the calyx; seeds dark brown, 3-3.5 mm long, broadly ovate to suborbicular, radially ridged.-NOTES: Sandy or gravelly soils of washes, stream-banks, hillsides, or occasionally roadsides: Pima, Santa Cruz cos. (Fig. 2C); 1020-1400 m (3350-4550 ft); Jul-Oct; s AZ; n Mex.-REFERENCES: Chiang, F. and L.R. Landrum. Vascular Plants of Arizona: Solanaceae Part Three: Lycium.