Solanum laciniatum Aiton
poroporo
Glabrous, unarmed, soft-wooded shrub to c. 3 m tall; stems often purple or greenish purple. Lvs petiolate, entire or pinnatisect (with 1-4 pairs of lobes sometimes nearly reaching midrib) on the same plant, 10-40 cm long. Lamina of entire lvs to 5 cm wide (lobes of pinnatisect ones to 2 cm wide, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, sometimes ± elliptic); base decurrent on petiole; apex obtuse to acuminate. Cymes 2- c. 10-flowered; peduncles to 18 cm long at anthesis, slender; pedicels pendent at fruiting. Calyx 5-8 mm long, accrescent; lobes very broadly ovate-triangular, mucronate, much < tube. Corolla usually 4-5 cm diam., violet, almost glabrous; lobes very broad and rather shallow, ± emarginate. Anthers 3-4 mm long. Berry 23-30 mm long, ovoid or ellipsoid, pendent, usually yellow or pale orange; stone cells conspicuous, = or > seeds. Seeds 2.2-2.5 mm diam., ± obovoid but somewhat asymmetric.
N.; S.: from Auckland to Southland; St.; Ch.
Also indigenous to S.E. Australia and Tasmania.
Common in scrub, forest and plantation margins, around hedgerows and similar artifical habitats, especially abundant in cut-over forest or plantations.
FL Jan-Dec.
Poisonous (Connor 1977), although the ripe frs have often been used for making jam.
Although the 2 spp. have often been combined, the larger corollas with a ± emarginate apex and larger seeds enable S. laciniatum to be easily distinguished from the closely related S. aviculare. S. laciniatum has a generally more southerly and inland distribution than S. aviculare, although in some areas the 2 spp. grow together. Both are commonly called poroporo, and are cultivated in N.Z. and elsewhere, especially E. Europe, for their steroid precursors. Herasimenko, I. I., Rast. Resurs. 7: 363-371 (1971), described 5 formae of S. laciniatum but these are not considered worthy of recognition.
