Large Kangaroo Apple

Solanum laciniatum is similar to S. aviculare Forster under which name it was introduced from Australia and known in FRPS and other works. It differs in having yellow-orange rather than scarlet fruit, notched corolla lobes, and in details of the seeds.

Shrubs to 3 m tall; pubescence of simple hairs, soon glabrescent. Stems glabrous except for minute pubescence on young tips and buds. Leaves unequal paired, lobed and entire often on same plant; petiole of lobed leaf ca. 1-1.5 cm, that of entire leaf 0.5-1 cm; blade of lobed leaf broadly ovate, deeply pinnately 3-5-parted, 12-17 × 6-13 cm; blade of entire leaf lanceolate, 10-20 × 1.5-3 cm. Inflorescences terminal, axillary, or extra-axillary, scorpioid-racemose, ca. 8 cm; peduncle short or obsolete. Pedicel 1.5-3 cm. Calyx 5-7 mm; lobes deltate, 2-3 mm, leathery, apex mucronulate. Corolla blue-purple, rotate, 2-2.5 cm; lobes semirounded, notched. Filaments subulate; anthers oblong, 3-4 mm. Style ca. 8 mm. Berry orange-yellow, ovoid or ellipsoid, ca. 3 × 2.5 cm, pendulous. Seeds subovate, ca. 3 × 2 mm, compressed. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

Cultivated. Hebei, Hubei, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Yunnan [native of Oceania]