Peru? [more likely Chile]. “Cette plante croît au Perou”, J. Dombey [343] (lectotype, first step designated by Edmonds 1972, pg. 107 [as holotype], second step designated by Barboza et al. 2013, pg. 246: P [P00335357]; isolectotypes: CORD [CORD00006928], F [v0043232F, acc. # 976864], G [G00359946], G-DC [G00144483], P [P00335358]).

Annual or perennial herbs to 1.0 m tall, erect to lax, subwoody at base, sprawling to ca. 2 m across. Stems terete or ridged, green to purple tinged, not markedly hollow sparsely pubescent with simple, uniseriate 1–5-celled eglandular trichomes 0.1–0.5 mm long; new growth sparsely to densely pubescent with similar simple, uniseriate 1–5-celled eglandular trichomes; older stems sparsely pubescent to glabrescent, pale yellowish brown. Sympodial units difoliate, the leaves not geminate. Leaves simple, (1.5–)4.0–8.0(–2.0) cm long, (0.6–2.2–4.6(–6.5) cm wide, ovate to rhomboidal, green above, slightly paler beneath; adaxial surface sparsely pubescent with simple, uniseriate trichomes like those on stem, these evenly spread along lamina and veins; abaxial surface more densely pubescent; major veins 4–6 pairs; base cuneate to acute, the two sides slightly unequal, decurrent on the petiole; margins sinuate-dentate or entire; apex acute; petioles 1.0–3.5 cm long, sparsely pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes like those on stem. Inflorescences (1.0–)1.5–3.0(–4.0) cm long, lateral, internodal, forked or more rarely unbranched, with 6–14 flowers clustered at the tips (sub-umbelliform) or evenly spaced along the rhachis, sparsely pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes like those on stem; peduncle (1.0–)1.5–2.0 cm long; pedicels 4.0–7.5 mm long, 0.2–0.3 mm in diameter at the base and 0.3–0.4 mm in diameter at the apex, straight and spreading, articulated at the base; pedicel scars spaced ca. 0.2–2.5 mm apart. Buds subglobose, the corolla exserted 1/3–1/2 from the calyx tube before anthesis. Flowers 5-merous, all perfect. Calyx tube 2–3 mm long, conical, the lobes 0.8–1.5 mm long, 0.6–1.0 mm wide, rectangular to narrowly obovate with obtuse to shortly acute apices, pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes like those on stem but shorter. Corolla 12–20 mm in diameter, white to lilac with a green or yellow-green central portion near the base, this sometimes purplish near the lobe midvein, stellate, lobed 1/3–1/2 of the way to the base, the lobes 5.5–7.0 mm long, 2.8–5.5 mm wide, strongly reflexed at anthesis, later spreading, densely pubescent abaxially with 1–4-celled simple uniseriate trichomes, especially along the margins and apex, these shorter than the trichomes of the stems and leaves. Stamens equal; filament tube minute; free portion of the filaments 0.9–1.6 (2) mm long, adaxially pubescent with tangled uniseriate 4–6-celled simple trichomes; anthers 2.3–3.3(-3.6) mm long, 0.8–1.0 mm wide, ellipsoid, yellow, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age. Ovary globose, glabrous; style 6.0–6.5 mm long, densely pubescent with 2–3-celled simple uniseriate trichomes in the lower 1/2–2/3, exserted 2–3 mm beyond the anther cone and somewhat curved; stigma capitate, minutely papillate, yellow or green in live plants. Fruit a globose berry, 6–9 mm in diameter, dull green to purple at maturity, opaque, the surface of the pericarp matte; fruiting pedicels 7–12 mm long, 0.2–0.4 mm in diameter at the base, 0.5–1.0 mm in diameter at the apex, strongly reflexed, dropping with mature fruits, not persistent; fruiting calyx not accrescent, the tube 1.0–2.0 mm long, the lobes 1.5–2.5 mm long, appressed against the berry. Seeds 30–40 per berry, 1.8–2.0 mm long, 1.4–1.5 mm wide, flattened and tear-drop shaped with a subapical hilum, yellow-brown, the surface minutely pitted, the testal cells pentagonal in outline. Stone cells 6–14 per berry, 0.8–1.0 mm in diameter. Chromosome number: 2n=6×=72 (Stebbins and Paddock 1949; Edmonds 1982, 1983; Chiarini et al. 2017).

(Figure 20) Solanumfurcatum is native to Chile (incl. the Juan Fernández Islands) and adjacent Andean Argentina. It is probably locally introduced and naturalised along the west coast of the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. Only a few specimens have been seen from California and Oregon, but in those areas the species is clearly naturalised. Wiggins (1980) recorded S.furcatum from Baja California (Mexico), with no specimen citations; all specimens we have seen identified as S.furcatum from Baja California are plants of S.douglasii.

In western North America S.furcatum is a plant of disturbed areas in winter-wet areas along sea cliffs and bluffs between sea level and 100 m elevation.

United States of America. Forked nightshade (USDA Plants 2017).

None recorded in the region.

Least Concern (LC). Solanumfurcatum is introduced into the western United States, where it is not common, but its worldwide range is very large. For EOO see Table 6.

Solanumfurcatum can be distinguished from the similar and sympatric S.douglasii in its usually forked inflorescences, globose buds from which the style is often exserted, ellipsoid anthers on distinct filaments, and berries with usually more than 10 stone cells. Solanumfurcatum is not sympatric with S. nigrescens but differs from it in the same set of characters and in its style that is exserted for as long as the anther cone (e.g., exserted portion of the style equal to the length of the anther cone).

Solanumfurcatum was considered to be an introduction from Chile by Stebbins and Paddock (1949) and is well-established but not common in coastal areas from Oregon to central California. Other Chilean species have similarly become established along the west coast of the United States [such as Nicotianaacuminata (Graham) Hook., see Goodspeed 1954; Knapp in press].

Details of typification for the synonyms of S.furcatum can be found in Särkinen et al. (2018).

See Suppl. materials 1 and 3.