P. Jaeger
[S. hermannii Dunal, nom. illeg.; S. sodomeum sensu auct., non L.]
(nat) Apple of Sodom, popolo kTka- nia, yellow-fruited or thorny popolo
Shrubs up to 1 m tall and in diameter, most parts armed with prominent, stout, nearly straight, straw-colored prickles up to 15 mm long, pubescent with stellate hairs, sparse on upper leaf surface, dense on lower surface, and also with minute, simple, glandular hairs. Leaves simple, alternate, ovate-elliptic in outline, ca. 8 cm long and 6 cm wide, margins deeply pinnately lobed, sinuses rounded, reaching 3A to midrib, often with 5-7 major lobes, apex acute or rounded, base truncate to subcordate, oblique, petioles 1-2 cm long. Lower flowers perfect, upper ones staminate, actinomorphic, few to 6 in stout racemose cymes from an inter nodal position, lower flower sometimes solitary, peduncles short or absent, pedicels ca. 1 cm long, prickly; calyx densely prickly, the tube ca. 5 mm long, the lobes triangular, 2-3 mm long; corolla purplish blue, rotate-stellate, ca. 2 cm in diameter, the lobes acute; stamens inserted near base of corolla tube; filaments 1-2 mm long; anthers erect, tapered above, 5-6 mm long, opening by terminal pores; ovary glabrous or with a few glandular hairs, vestigial in staminate flowers; style up to 1 cm long, sparsely pubescent in lower part, vestigial in staminate flowers; stigma green, capitate. Berries yellow at maturity, dark brown upon drying, firm, mucilaginous, globose, 2-3 cm in diameter, fruiting pedicels thickened and recurved, calyx somewhat enlarged, all parts very prickly. Seeds numerous, pale brown, rounded or obovate, biconvex, 2-3 mm long, testa minutely reticulate. Self-com- patible; [2n = 24.] Native to Africa, now widely established in warm temperate areas, often in sub-maritime situations; in Hawaii naturalized in dry pastures, coastal to dry shrubland and dry forest, up to 575 m, on 0‘ahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and Hawaii. First collected on 0‘ahu in 1895 (Heller 2409, F, GH, MO, NY, VC).—Plate 186.
For a discussion of the nomenclature of this species see Hepper and Jaeger (1986).