Solanum aquartia Dunal var. luxurians (O.E. Schulz) Alain, Phytologia 70: 150. 1991

Type: Solanum aculeatum (Jacq.) O.E.Schulz var. luxurians O.E. Schulz ex O. Shmidt.

Distribution. In forests and scrub on limestone dry hills on Cuba, Hispaniola and Jamaica, from sea level to 400 m elevation.

Representative specimen. Jamaica, Saint Catherine Parish, Proctor 32768 (BM).

There has long been confusion over the correct name for this species. Dunal’s (1813) re-naming of Jacquin’s Aquartia aculeata as Solanum aquartia was illegitimate, but the name was used for many years. By the time Schulz (1909) made the correct combination Solanum aculeatum, the name Solanum aculeatum St. - Lag. had been validly (but illegitimately) published as a replacement for Solanum aculeiger Dunal (now recognised as a synonym of the Brazilian species S. thomasiifolium Sendtn., see Solanaceae Source, http://www.solanaceaesource.org). The oldest available name for this species is S. tetramerum.

No specimen of Aquartia aculeata attributable to Jacquin has been found, despite intensive searches in many herbaria (principally BM, LINN and W) where such a sheet, if it had ever existed, might have been preserved. No original material was cited in the protologue (Jacquin, 1760), so any type selected must be a neotype. The illustration of A. aculeata in Jacquin’s first illustrated edition of the Selectarum Stirpium Americanarum Historia (Jaqcuin, 1763), a copper engraving taken from original drawings done by Jacquin in the field (see Wiltshear, 1913) is very accurate, and I have chosen it here as the neotype of the species (Fig. 5c).

Solanum inclusum was described without specific collection or locality but said to be widespread across the Caribbean and in northern South America (Grisebach, 1861). Various subsequent authors have suggested that Grisebach’s S. inclusum included both S. tetramerum and S. polygamum. No specimens have been identified at GOET that can be directly linked to Grisebach’s naming of S. inclusum. In his Cuban catalogue Grisebach (1866) cited specimens as S. inclusum that are now identified as S. tetramerum (Linden 1986, 2000). Specimens indicated as type material of S. inclusum in some herbaria (i.e., Wright 1350 in GH) are in fact S. torvum. Since Grisebach (1861) did not indicate any specimens or specific localities for his name, these sheets cannot be considered type material. I neotypify Grisebach’s Solanum inclusum here with the BM duplicate (Fig. 5d) of Linden 1986 in order to stabilise usage (synonymy) of this ambiguous name.

No duplicates of Ekman H.7289, the type of Solanum miragonae, are extant at B, and the only sheet of this collection encountered is at S, so this is the clear choice as the lectotype (Fig. 6a). It may be that the S sheet is the holotype, as S. miragonae was described in a Swedish journal along with other taxa whose types are in S, but as there is no evidence of this, I prefer to lectotypify the name here.

Solanum aculeatum var. fuertesii was described using several collections: Fuertes 384, 386 and 396. Of these, Fuertes 384 has been located in several herbaria, the NY duplicate is here selected as the lectotype (Fig. 6b). In describing variety luxurians, with larger, more repand leaves, several syntypes were cited: Ekman H.2318, Ekman H.6732, Ekman H.8548, Ekman H.9979 and Ekman H.8773. The duplicate of Ekman H.9979 in S (Fig. 6c) has an annotation label in Schulz’s hand with the varietal name luxurians, and is the logical choice for a lectotype.