Species profile—Solanum dissectum
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Solanaceae → Solanum dissectum
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Solanaceae
- Scientific name
- Solanum dissectum Symon
- WildNet taxon ID
- 6198
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Endangered
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) status
- Endangered
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 337796 (Holotype), 337795 (Isotype), status annotated by author
- Description
- Solanum dissectum is a perennial shrub 0.3 to 1 m high. The juvenile branchlets prickles are 7 to 10 mm long. The juvenile leaves are ovate and deeply lobed throughout, with 2 to 5 pairs of lobes. The lamina are 5.5 to 7 cm long by 3 to 4 cm wide, with 2 to 3 prickles on the upper surface. The adult branchlets are grey, or brown, with the prickles straight, acicular 4 to 11 mm long and 9 to 13 times longer than wide, and more or less glabrous. The adult leaves are ovate, or broadly ovate and deeply lobed throughout, with 2 to 4 lobes on each side, the lobes are acute, or obtuse. The lamina are 2 to 5.5 cm long by 0.9 to 2.5 cm wide, 1.5 to 2.9 times longer than broad; the apex is obtuse or acute, the base cuneate or attenuate or obtuse. Lamina prickles can be absent or present on the mid-veins only. The inflorescence is a short cyme bearing 4 or 5 flowers; the pedicel is 6 to 8 mm long; the calyx lobes 1 to 2.5 mm long. The corolla is deeply divided almost to the base, pale mauve; lobes about 7 mm long by 2 mm wide; the anthers 2.5 to 4 mm long and 1 mm wide. The fruiting calyx lobes are less than half the length of the mature fruit with no prickles. There is 1 fruit per inflorescence, they are globular, 7 to 9 mm diameter and red in colour, the flesh is succulent and juicy. The seeds are pale yellow, 3 to 4.1 mm long (Bean, 2004).
Solanum dissectum is unusual for a species with prickles in lacking stellate hairs, in which character it joins S. pugiunculiferum, an unusual species from northern Australia (Symon, 1995). S. dissectum is most closely related to S. ferocissimum and the recently described S. lythrocarpum. It differs from both species by its complete lack of stellate hairs and its deeply lobed leaves (Bean 2004). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Solanum dissectum has a restricted distribution in central Queensland. It has mainly been found in the area bounded by Banana, Dululu, Moura and Thangool but has also been recorded 40 km south of Blackwater (Queensland Herbarium 2012).
- Distributional limits
- -23.337844, 148.846715
-24.6352778, 150.5844085 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Solanum dissectum occurs in open forest and woodland of brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) or Eucalyptus thozetiana on solodic clay soils (Queensland Herbarium 2012).
- Reproduction
- Solanum dissectum flowers July to November and fruits from March to July. (Queensland Herbarium 2012).
- Threatening processes
- Threatening processes to Solanum dissectum include: destruction of remaining individuals and populations on private freehold land by clearing of vegetation patches that are too small to be mapped as remnant (Vegetation Management Act 1999) (all remaining populations are threatened in this way); chance stochastic events (e.g. changes in drainage, drought, wildlife predation, fire) that may reduce population sizes or eliminate them entirely (all populations are particularly susceptible due to the fragmented nature of the vegetation remnants); and weed invasion of small vegetation remnants (e.g. exotic pasture grasses, especially buffel grass) that may affect fire fuel loads and reduce available resources or habitat for future recruitment (all populations). No populations occur within a protected area (DERM, 2010; Forster, 2007).
- Status notes
- Solanum dissectum is listed as Endangered under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management recommendations
- Solanum dissectum is a poorly known species requiring further field survey to locate any further populations and to precisely determine the number of populations, geographical range, area of occupancy and number of individuals. There is no information available on the genetics, reproductive biology, dispersal, recruitment or population structure of this species (Forster, 2007).
Other management actions are documented in DERM (2010). - Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Leichhardt, Port Curtis.
- References
- Bean, A.R. (2004). The taxonomy and ecology of Solanum subg. Leptostemonum (Dunal) Bitter (Solanaceae) in Queensland and far north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Austrobaileya 6 (4): 639-816.
Forster, P.I. (2007). Nomination form and guidelines for listing protected wildlife under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. Species Technical Committee (February, 2008).
Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) (2010). Fitzroy Natural Resource Management Region Back on Track Actions for Biodiversity. Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 20/03/2012.
Symon, D.E. (1995). Four new species of Solanum L. (Solanaceae) from south east Queensland. Austrobaileya 4 (3): 432. - Profile author
- Ronald Booth (05/06/2012)
Other resources
- Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT)
- The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH)
- Atlas of Living Australia
Data source
This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=6198.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
