Solanum lyratum Thunb.

Sprawling shrub or herbaceous vine, woody at the base. Stems flexuous, not winged, sparsely to densely pubescent with translucent, glandular, simple uniseriate trichomes to 4 mm long, with 4–6 cells, the gland 1-celled, these overtopping shorter glandular simple trichomes ca. 0.5 mm long, the trichomes weak and tangled; new growth densely pubescent with trichomes like those of the stems. Bark of older stems pale yellowish tan, glabrescent, the longer trichomes usually breaking off and only the shorter ones remaining. Sympodial units plurifoliate. Leaves simple or pinnatifid, usually only with 2 lyrate lobes at the base, 2–6(-9) cm long, 0.5–5(-7) cm wide, cordate to lyrate, widest in the basal third, thin and membranous, both surfaces uniformly pubescent with weak, translucent simple uniseriate trichomes to 4 mm long, these usually glandular like those of the stems; primary veins 5–7 pairs, usually yellowish in dry material; base cordate, occasionally truncate, not decurrent on the petiole; margins entire or lobed, the lobes usually only a pair at the base, these sometimes completely divided and the leaf apparently pinnate, occasionally with up to 4 pairs of lobes; apex acuminate or acute; petiole 1–3 cm long, pubescent like the stems, twining. Inflorescences terminal or lateral, 2.5–10 cm long, open and many times branched, with 10–40+ flowers, usually only a few open at a time, pubescent with simple uniseriate glandular trichomes like those of the stems; peduncle 2–6 cm long; pedicels 7–11 mm long, ca. 0.5 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the apex, slender and spreading, glabrous or short-glandular pubescent, articulated at the base in a small sleeve 1–2 mm long; pedicel scars irregularly spaced 2–9 mm apart, more congested distally. Buds ellipsoid, the corolla strongly exserted from the calyx tube before anthesis. Flowers all perfect, 5-merous. Calyx tube 1–1.5 mm long, conical, the lobes 0–1 mm long, deltate or mere enations on the calyx rim, glabrous, papillate on the tips. Corolla 8–13 mm in diameter, white to pale lavender, with green and white spots at the base of each lobe, stellate, lobed 3/4 of the way to the base, the lobes 3–6 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, strongly reflexed at anthesis, the tips and margins densely papillose. Filament tube minute, the free portion of the filaments 1–1.5 mm long, glabrous; anthers 3–3.5 mm long, 1–1.5 mm wide, ellipsoid, loosely connivent, often dark blue or black, the base sagittate, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age. Ovary glabrous; style 5–7 mm long, glabrous; stigma capitate, the surface minutely papillate. Fruit a globose berry, ca. 1 cm in diameter, bright red, translucent and shiny when ripe, the juice staining scarlet; fruiting pedicels 1–1.5 cm long, ca. 0.75 mm in diameter at the base, spreading. Seeds >30 per berry, ca. 2.5 mm long, ca. 1.5 mm wide, flattened reniform, pale yellowish tan, the surfaces minutely pitted, when mature the seed apparently hairy from the elongate lateral testal cell walls, these to 0.5 mm. Chromosome number: not known.

(Figure 62). Solanum lyratum occurs in a wide variety of habitats in China, Japan and north Vietnam, from sea level to 1500 m.