Studies on Morphological Characters of Indian Nightshade

Abstract

Morphological characters of nine accessions of Indian nightshade collected from the different regions in Thailand were studied. Two species; Solanum sanitwongsei and Solanum violaceum were obtained. S. sanitwongsei consisted of 7 accessions as follows; SM319, SM325, SM353, SM362, SM364, SM390 and SM408 and 2 accessions, SM394 and SM409, belonged to S. violaceum. Both species exhibited the similar morphological characters. Plant growth habit was upright. Stem and branches covered with pubescent. The large simple leave with pubescent on the surface alternately arranged, however, the prickles on the stem, branches and leave were shown only in S. violaceum. Flowers of Indian nightshade presented in form of inflorescence. Corolla was purple except the white corolla in SM364. Comparing to the anther, the style was quite long. The round fruits were small with 8.711.0 mm in width and 9.7-12.2 mm in length. The prickles on fruit pedicel and calyx were absence except in S. violaceum. Fruit color at commercial ripeness was dark green with netted in S. violaceum, while not only dark green with netted but also light green were observed in S. sanitwongsei. Fruit color sequentially changed into yellow, orange and brown at physiological ripeness. The yellow seeds had kidney shape and seed size was approximately 3.0 mm.