Solanum eremophilum
F.Muell.Perennial herb with annual branches to 40 cm high, green, pubescent with simple, glandular and stellate hairs; prickles mostly 1–7 mm long, on stems, petioles, leaves, peduncles and calyces. Leaves ovate, mostly 3–6 cm long, 3–4 cm wide, apex acute or obtuse, base cuneate to cordate, margins shallowly lobed with lobes undulate or further lobed, concolorous, both surfaces tomentose with stellate and glandular hairs; petiole 2–6 cm long. Inflorescences simple, 2–6-flowered; peduncle c. 1 cm long. Flowers on pedicels c. 20 mm long; calyx 7–8 mm long, lobes lanceolate, 5–6 mm long; corolla stellate, shallowly incised, 20–40 mm diam., purple, lobes broad, rounded; anthers 4–5 mm long. Berry globose, 10–13 mm diam., whitish or yellowish; seeds 2.5–3 mm long, grey-yellow. Flowers late spring–autumn.
Also SA, NSW. In Victoria, known only from a few collections in the Charlton area where possibly introduced with stock or fodder from northern states.
Regarded as a probable Solanum petrophilum x S. esuirale hybrid by Symon (1981), but this view is refuted by Bean (2002).
Jeanes, J.A. (1999). Solanaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 332–365. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
SpinningMisapplications
Bean, A.R. (2002). The identity of ''Solanum adenophorum'' in New South Wales and Victoria. Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 111: 6.
Symon, D.E. (1981). A revision of the genus Solanum in Australia. Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens . Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 4: 1–367.
