''Solanum pseudolulo'' is a subtropical

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

from northwestern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

. The ''pseudolulo'' is a large herbaceous plant or a small shrub, with heart-shaped leaves. The leaves and stems of the plant are covered in short hairs, and the entire plant is often covered in sharp spines. Occasionally known as ''lulo de perro'', the pseudolulo bears edible fruit, but is rarely cultivated. Instead, the plant proliferates as a weedy species at medium-altitude locations in Colombia and

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...

. The fruit is generally regarded as inferior to the true lulo -

naranjilla ''Solanum quitoense'', known as naranjilla (, "little orange") in Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Panama and as lulo (, from Quechua) in Colombia, is a tropical perennial plant from northwestern South America. The specific name for this species of nig ...

- but the fruit is occasionally sold in markets, and the plant is generally tolerated as a garden intruder. Unlike the lulo/naranjilla, the pseudolulo thrives in sunnier locations. The fruit is a large

berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, rasp ...

, green when unripe, ripening to yellow or yellow-orange. The orange or yellow flesh is filled with an abundance of small seeds. The fruit is covered with hairs which detach when the fruit has ripened. Some botanists consider the pseudolulo to be worthy of investigation as an agricultural fruit plant. (2005)
''Solanum pseudolulo''
Version of December 2005. Retrieved 2008-SEP-25.

Classification

Within the genus

Solanum ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanacea ...

, ''S. pseudolulo'' is a part of the leptostemonum clade. Within this clade, ''S. pseudolulo'' belongs to the Lasiocarpa clade. Other species within this clade include: ''S. candidum'', ''S. hyporhodium'', ''S. lasiocarpum'', ''S. felinum'', ''S. quitoense'', ''S. repandum'' and ''S. vestissimum''. Specimens of each of these species are often spiny, covered in short hairs, and share a similar leaf shape; many of them bear edible fruit, and hybrids between species are possible.

References

External links

Taxonomy

Tropical fruit pseudolulo Edible Solanaceae Crops originating from Ecuador Crops originating from Colombia {{fruit-stub