Solanum "Morelloid Clade" (S. nigrum, S. villosum, S. americanum etc...)

Nature Talk
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The species belonging to the so-called “Morelloid Clade” have never been so easy to identify. Here they are two revisions that can be helpful for this purpose:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6070582/pdf/phytokeys-106-001.pdf

https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/_migrated/uploads/tx_news/Black_nightshades__Solanum_nigrum_L._and_related_species_337.pdf

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I haven’t yet looked at the first, but the second one is a great link, thanks! I have been actively conserving the two species native to NZ, (S. Opacum and S. Americanum), against their routine destruction due to popular perception, and there is a lot of valuable info in that paper suggesting a need for thorough research of both their likely nutritional and medicinal value and their toxicity, and how to manage those.

And I learned what a huckleberry is…I always wondered, vaguely.

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you’re welcome

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Is there a way to just identify these to the level of this clade? I have often wanted to do this, since they’re hard to ID to species level and I don’t know them well, but haven’t found a taxon listed on iNaturalist.

I brought this issue up in comments on observations, but got no answers and have left it alone until seeing this post.

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Good point. As I made repeated observations of both NZ native S.opacum and the NZ introduced S. Niger, I wanted something to group them, distinguishing them from other Solanum eg the poroporo I mention above, or others that are weeds eg S. Mauritianum, a tree which is an abundant invasive here.

I should have followed the advice I gave above, and made a Field for them. Can you suggest a name for the Field? Eg, what is the clade? In fact, what IS a clade? :grinning: but I should look that up myself.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6554266/

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has anyone flagged the genus on iNat? If not I’d suggest doing that, as requests for taxonomy edits/additions on the forum are often missed. I don’t have time to dive into the literature right now but given that it’s a described clade (right?) it probably will be no problem to add it.

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I would be necessary to make a comparison between these papers and POWO and. in the case, to decide which one(s) is to be followed

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i guess my point is just that taxonomy questions typically aren’t handled on the forum so those who you are trying to reach might not see this. I am all for adding clades whenever we can, but don’t have any specific opinion on this one.

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Thanks for the link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6554266/ 2
I missed seeing it earlier.

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