Solanum rostratum Dunal
Family: Solanaceae

Pertinent Synonyms & Notes (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other synonyms)

none

Pertinent Common Names (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other common names)

buffalobur

Primary Disseminule Type

seed

Description (diagnostics are in brown)

Fruit a semidry, dehiscent berry with numerous seeds, globose, brownish, loosely enveloped in the enlarged, prickly calyx (and therefore looking like a bur), 9–12 mm in diameter.

Seed very irregular in shape, obovate to rounded-reniform in outline (commonly partly angled or polygonal), notched along margin where hilum occurs, compressed, (1.5)2–3 mm diameter x 0.9–1.3 mm thick. Surface may be particularly dull or rough when dried bits of the mucilaginous envelope remain; otherwise, surface is sparkly and iridescent under lit magnification, reticulately honeycombed, lumpy, dark brown to black.

Hilum marginal, in notch, ± round, markedly sunken, ca. 0.3 mm across.

Risk Assessment (codes in yellow or red indicate cause for concern; assessments are current as of mid-2011; click AUQP, NZBORIC, or NZBPI for access to the most recent versions of these databases and possible assessment changes)

AUQP, NZBORIC, NZBPI