Giant devil's fig (Solanum chrysotrichum)

Giant devil's fig (Solanum chrysotrichum) is a species of plant in the Solanaceae, a shrub or small tree, up to 7.5 meters high, woody stems with rows of large, downward-curving spines, branching, green or white bark with dense brownish hairs.

S. chrysotrichum has leaves with large stalks and up to 27 cm long. The leaves are oval, up to 65 cm long, up to 65 cm wide, with a rough surface and green color. A large vein in the center with several long, erect spines. Some of the smaller veins are pinnate with several long, erect spines.

Star-shaped flowers, up to 4 cm wide, white and yellow in the center. The fruit is green when young, orange when ripe and brown when dry, up to 2 cm wide, round, hard, slimy and glabrous. Seeds shiny, yellow to light brown, 2-3x1.5-2.5 mm.

This tree grows wild in forests, riverbanks, steep slopes, roadsides and agricultural land at elevations of 1000-2000 meters with a tropical climate.

TAXON

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Subfamily: Solanoideae
Tribe: Solaneae
Genus: Solanum L. in Sp. Pl.: 184 (1753)
Subgenus: Leptostemonum
Species: Solanum chrysotrichum Schltdl. in Linnaea 19: 304 (1846)

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS

Solanum pynaertii De Wild. in Miss. Ém. Laurent 1: 437 (1907)
Solanum scorpioideum Rusby in Descr. S. Amer. Pl.: 113 (1920)
Solanum torvum var. pleiotomum C.Y.Wu & S.C.Huang in Acta Phytotax. Sin. 16(2): 73 (1978)
Solanum truncatum Standl. & C.V.Morton in Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 18: 1095 (1938)
Solanum warszewiczii Lambertye in Rev. Hort. (Paris) 14: 429 (1865)
Solanum warzcewiczoides C.Huber in Nursery Cat. (Huber) 1970(Cat. Graines): 3 (1870)

PUBLICATIONS

Aubriot, X. & Knapp, S. (2022). A revision of the "spiny solanums" of Tropical Asia (Solanum, the Leptostemonum Clade, Solanaceae). PhytoKeys 198: 1-270.

Bikandu, B., Lukoki, F. & Habari, J.P. (2020). Flore d'Afrique Centrale (Zaire-rwanda-Burundi) Solanaceae: 1-162. Jardin Botanique National de Belgique.

Gosline, G., Bidault, E., van der Burgt, X., Cahen, D., Challen, G., Condé, N., Couch, C., Couvreur, T.L.P., Dagallier, L.M.J., Darbyshire, I., Dawson, S., Doré, T.S., Goyder, D., Grall, A., Haba, P., Haba, P., Harris, D., Hind, D.J.N., Jongkind, & al. (2023). A Taxonomically-verified and Vouchered Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the Republic of Guinea. Nature, scientific data 10, Article number: 327: [1]-[12

VERNACULAR NAME

English: Giant Devil's Fig, Devil's Solanum, Takokak setan
East Java: Jarak alas, Jarak setan
Java: Jarak setan, takokak setan
Indonesian: Takokak setan, Ceri setan, Ranti setan
Sunda: Takokak sétan

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