Solanum mariae Särkinen & S. Knapp

Trailing herbs, stems to 20–30 cm tall arising from woody trailing stems that root at nodes, the individual stems up to 5 m long. Stems terete, 1.5–2.5 mm in diameter, moderately to densely pubescent with spreading bayonet hairs (uniseriate, 2-celled hairs with an elongate, thicker-walled basal cell capped by a short acuminate cell) and with simple, 2–4-celled uniseriate glandular-tipped finger hairs c. 0.5 mm long; new growth densely pubescent with trichomes like those of the stems; bark of older stems grey-brown, smooth. Sympodial units plurifoliate, not geminate. Leaves simple, 1.4–3.5 cm long, 1.0–1.6 cm wide, ovate-lanceolate; adaxial surface moderately pubescent with bayonet hairs like those on the stems, and with simple, 2-celled uniseriate glandular-tipped hairs c. 0.3 mm long; abaxial surface more densely pubescent with trichomes like those of the upper surface; primary veins 4–6 pairs; base acute to obtuse; margins entire; apex rounded; petiole 0.5–1.2 cm long, moderately to densely pubescent with trichomes like those of the stems. Pseudostipules in pairs, simple, 5 mm long, 3 mm wide, ovate-lanceolate, tip acute, resembling leaves in shape and appearance. Inflorescences 1.5–2.7 cm long, lateral and internodal, simple, with 3–5 flowers in the distal half, moderately to densely pubescent with spreading trichomes like those of the stems; peduncle 0.4–1.6 cm long; pedicels 0.6–0.7 cm long, ca. 0.3 mm in diameter at the base and apex, straight, curved at the tip, articulated at the base; pedicel scars spaced ca. 1 mm apart. Buds globose, the corolla only exerted from the calyx tube just before anthesis. Flowers 5-merous, all perfect; calyx tube ca. 1.5–2.0 mm long, the lobes 2.0–2.5 mm long, 1.8–2.0 mm wide, broadly deltate, with acute apices, spreading in bud and flower, moderately to densely pubescent; corolla 1.2–1.5 cm in diameter, shallowly stellate, white, lobed halfway to slightly less than halfway to the base, the lobes ca. 4–5 mm long and 4–5 mm wide, spreading at anthesis, moderately to densely pubescent abaxially with trichomes like those of the stem, glabrous adaxially; filament tube minute, glabrous; free portion of the filaments ca. 1.0–1.2 mm long, glabrous; anthers 2.7–3.0 mm long, ca. 2.5 mm wide, ellipsoid, yellow, poricidal at the tips, the pores lengthening to slits with age; ovary conical, glabrous; style 5–6 mm long, exerted 1.5–2.0 mm beyond the anther cone, glabrous; stigma clavate, minutely papillate, yellow-green in live plants. Fruit (immature) an ellipsoid berry, 8–9 mm long and 6.8 mm wide when developing, with the mesocarp ca. 0.2 mm wide, green, fully enclosed in the accrescent calyx, glabrous, mature fruits not seen; fruiting peduncle 1.3–2.2 cm long; fruiting pedicels 1.8–2.3 cm long, 0.3–0.5 mm in diameter at the base and 0.5–1.8 mm at apex, reflexed 180° in fruit; fruiting calyx 8–9 mm long, 3.5–4.0 mm wide and still developing, appressed to and enclosing the entire berry, the calyx lobes spreading at the mouth of enclosing tube. Seeds 30–40 per berry, 1.2–1.5 mm long, 1.0–1.2 mm wide, flattened-reniform, yellowish, the surfaces minutely pitted, the hilum positioned laterally in the middle, the testal cells pentagonal in outline.

Endemic to Peru; growing along north facing banks in loamy soils in along roadsides, not in full sun, associated with Lycianthes lycioides (L.) Hassl. (Solanaceae) and various grasses; only known from a single population at 2,600 m elevation from San Marcos Province in the Department of Cajamarca.