Solanum watneyi, a new bush tomato species from the Northern Territory, Australia named for Mark Watney of the book and film "The Martian".

Jason T Cantley,Christopher T Martine,Ingrid E Jordon-Thaden,Emma S Frawley

doi:10.3897/phytokeys.61.6995

Jason T Cantley, Christopher T Martine + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.61.6995

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Journal: PhytoKeys	Publication Date: Feb 25, 2016
Citations: 14	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Bucknell University, University of California, Berkeley

Abstract

A new species of andromonoecious Solanum from the Australian “bush tomato clade” of Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum is described. Solanum watneyi Martine & Frawley, sp. nov. is closely allied with Solanum eburneum, and is sympatric with it in parts of its range in the Northern Territory. The new species has been recognized as a variant of Solanum eburneum for decades, at times being referred to by local botanists as Solanum sp. “Bullita” because of its relative abundance in the vicinity of the Bullita Station area of Judbarra/Gregory National Park. Morphometric analyses show that Solanum watneyi differs statistically from Solanum eburneum in several key reproductive and vegetative characters and field observations suggest that the two sister species may represent a case of edaphic speciation. We provide morphometric evidence for the novelty of Solanum watneyi, a complete description, and cite specimens for both species.

Highlights

Since David Symon’s monograph of Australian Solanum L. in 1981, numerous additional species and morphospecies have been described for the continent
This has been notably true for a set of “spiny solanums” from northern Australia defined by Symon (1981) as belonging to Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum Bitter section Melongena Bitter (e.g. Bean and Albrecht 2008, Barrett 2013, Brennan et al 2006, Martine et al 2011, 2013), a putatively natural group including the cultivated eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) and a number of other non-Australian species
Solanum watneyi is distinguished from S. eburneum by its weakly erect and sprawling habit, long internodes and fruiting pedicels, often scabrous dark green

Summary

Introduction

Since David Symon’s monograph of Australian Solanum L. in 1981, numerous additional species and morphospecies have been described for the continent. Endemic to a small region of the Northern Territory around the East Baines River, S. eburneum appeared to Symon to be restricted to gray clay soils.

Results

Conclusion