Useful information about the plant family

Family: Solanaceae Juss. 1789

Description-internal

Herbs, shrubs, trees, or vines, internal phloem usually present

Distribution

Widespread, but most diverse in the Neotropics. Many species occur in disturbed habitats.

Floral characters

bisexual; inflorescences cymose or flowers solitary sepals: 5 ; free or connate, persistent and often enlarging in fruit petals: 5; connate, rotate to tubular stamens: 5; sometimes dehiscing by pores carpels: 2; connate; ovary superior

Leaf characters

alternate, often in pairs, the members of a pair both on the same side of the stem; simple or lobed to pinnate or 3-foliolate

Stipules

absent

Fruit characters

berry or septicial capsule

Glands

absent

Hairs

present; often stellate or branched; sometimes with prickles

Latex

absent

Uses

edible fruits: Capiscum (peppers), Cyphomandra (tamarillo), Lycopersicon (tomatoe), Physalis, Solanum (also edible tubers: potatoes) medical use: Atropa, Burgmansia, Datura, Duboisia, Mandragora, Nicotiana, Solandra ornamentals: Browallia, Cestrum, Lycium, Nicanda, Nierembergia, Petunia, Salpiglossis, Schizanthus, Solandra, Streptosolen

Chemical characters

tropan-alkaloids, e.g. in Atropa bella-donna, Hyoscyamos niger pyridin-alkaloids (e.g. nicotin) in genera Nicotiana steroid-alkaloids, characteristic for genera Solanum capsaicin, in genera Capiscum

Distribution maps

(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):

Solanaceae
map: from van Steenis & van Balgooy 1966; Meusel et al. 1978; van Balgooy 1984; Heywood 2007