Table of Jaltomata species (Solanaceae) having Red/Orange nectar |
revised Aug 2019 |
Link to Jaltomata homepage |
The information on this page may be cited as a communication with professor Thomas Mione, Central Connecticut State University, Biology Department, Copernicus Hall, 1615 Stanley Street, New Britain, CT 06050-4010 USA, and Segundo Leiva G., Universidad Privada Antenor Orrego, Av. América Sur 3145, Casilla postal 1075, Trujillo, Peru |
Literature Cited |
Link to list of edible Jaltomata species | Description and Geographic Distibution of the genus Jaltomata | Pollination of Jaltomata |
Flower | species habit Mione # |
Distribution Altitude (m) |
Hairs | Flowers Per Inflor | Where two sepals are fused, is an outward keel formed? | Corolla form; Corolla size (mm); |
Corolla color Radial corolla thickenings ? |
Corolla lobules | corona |
||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
J. herrerae nectar red |
Peru, mostly Dept. Cuzco, also Ayacucho; Bolivia, La Paz. 3,000 - 3,800 |
1 - 2 (-3 including buds on 563, 564) |
No |
campanulate with a revolute limb; |
light green yes, evident in photo |
as long as wide, not notched |
no |
1 | |||
J. neei shrub nectar red |
Peru, Dept. Cajamarca, prov San Miguel 2,645 |
to 3 |
No |
campanulate-tubular with a broad nearly flat limb; 28 - 39 mm broad at limb X about 13 mm long (deep) | green turning to blue with age
|
wider than long; not notched |
no |
2 | |||
J. estilopilosa | Peru, Dept. Amazonas
|
no | 3 | ||||||||
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J. paneroi |
Peru, Dept. Cajamarca
|
Densely hairy: finger, forked and dendritic, never gland-tipped | 3 - 4 (-6) |
No |
campanulate with a revolute limb; |
green
|
short (wider than long), not notched |
no |
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4 |
suffrutescent or shrub |
Peru, Dept. Cajamarca
|
dense covering of dendritic hairs on peducle, pedicel, and calyx, and outer corolla with dendritic hairs on main veins | 2 (-3) |
No |
corolla form: Corolla Size: limb 25-27 mm long, tube 12-12.2 long X 12-13 diameter |
yes | no |
5 | |||
Wurdack 1177 (K, NY, US) nectar orange |
Peru, Dept. Amazonas, prov. Chachapoyas 2,750-2,850 |
Densely hairy: long, gland-tipped finger hairs | 1 - 2 |
No Data |
no data; |
"pale green lobes and white sinuses" | no data |
no |
|||
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J. dendroidea nectar red |
Peru, Dept. La Libertad, prov Pataz 3,200 - 3,523 |
leaves: hairs all or predominatnly dendritic |
1 - 3 (-4) |
No to ever so slightly |
campanulate; |
green |
lobules essentially lacking (see photo) |
no |
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6 |
shrub nectar red
|
Peru, Dept. Huanuco, prov Pataz 3,727 m |
no | 7 | ||||||||
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J. leivae |
Peru, Dept. Cajamarca
|
(1-) 2 (-3) |
No |
urceolate with a revolute limb; 14 broad at mouth, 10 broad at base X 7 - 9 long (deep) |
the limb blue-violet, yes |
short |
no |
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8 | |
Flower | species habit |
Distribution Altitude (m) |
Hairs | Flowers Per Inflor |
Where two sepals meet, is an outward keel formed? | Corolla form; Corolla size (mm); |
Corolla color Radial corolla thickenings ? |
Corolla lobules | corona |
||
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J. weberbaueri red-orange nectar |
Peru, Dept. Ancash 3,000 - 3,800 m |
glabrous (except for base of filament and adax face of corolla) |
1 (-2)(-3 incl. buds) |
Yes |
broadly campanulate; 55-60 broad X 40-45 long (deep) |
violet yes, conspicuous in photo |
absent |
no |
9 | |
J. grandibaccata, J. guillermo-guerrae nectar red |
Peru, Dept. La Libertad 3,400-3,530 |
leaves glabrous |
1 - 2 |
Yes |
broadly campanulate; 32-36 broad X 19-27 long (deep) | green to green-blue; blue inside Yes |
short (wider than long), not notched |
no |
10 | ||
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J. ventricosa nectar orange-red* |
Peru, Dept. La Libertad 2,900-3,755 |
glabrate |
1 - 2 (-4) |
Yes |
urceolate, limb revolute; 12-14.5 broad X 8-10 long (deep) |
limb whitish to pale green or pale yellow, tube red-violet Yes |
about as wide as long, curled under when flower fully open |
no |
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11 |
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shrub nectar red* |
Peru, Dept. Lima, lomas to 500 |
4 - 9 |
No |
tubular with a rotate to campanulate limb; 14 - 23 broad X 9.2-10.9 long (deep) | the limb cream to pale green; the tube red because of nectar |
none |
no |
12 | ||
flower | species habit |
Distribution Altitude |
Hairs | Flowers Per Inflor |
Where two sepals meet, is an outward keel formed? | Corolla form; Corolla size (mm) |
corolla color Radial corolla thickenings? |
corolla lobules | corona |
||
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herbaceous to suffrutescent
|
Peru, Dept. Lima, small coastal mountains called lomas 0 - 500 m, and in Andes 1,600 - 2,550 m |
1 (very rarely 2) |
No |
crateriform rotate to 49 broad |
greenish-yellow or yellow-green no |
none |
yes |
13 | ||
J. calliantha 711, 758, 855, 856 |
Peru, Department La Libertad, province Otuzco and Department Ancash, prov Huaylas 1,420 - 2,100 m |
leaves glabrous |
1 |
No |
campanulate |
green no |
no |
yes |
14 | ||
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J. quipuscoae herbaceous to suffrutescent |
Peru, Department Arequipa |
yes |
15 | |||||||
flower | species habit |
Distribution Altitude (m) |
Flowers Per Inflor |
Where two sepals meet, is an outward keel formed? | Corolla form Ccorolla size (mm) |
corolla color Radial corolla thickenings? |
corolla lobules | corona |
|||
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J. biflora |
Peru, Dept. Junin
2,700 - 3,200 |
1-2 (-3 according to Macbride 1962) |
ever so slightly |
urceolate with a narrow mouth and broad base; corolla base 14 broad (cultivated plants) X 13 long (deep); |
green
yes |
about as long as wide, triangular, sometimes notched |
no |
|||
J. contumacensis netar clear or orange* |
Peru, Dept. Cajamarca 2,530 - 3,000 |
2 (-3) |
No |
urceolate-tubular with a broad nearly flat (slightly recurved) limb; (16--) 18-19 broad at the limb X12 long (deep) | green
slightly |
triangular, free part about 2 mm wide at base by 2 mm long |
no |
||||
J. sanchez-vegae nectar clear in nature, |
Peru, Departments
|
gland-tipped finger hairs |
1 - 2 |
No |
urceolate-tubular with a recurved limb; 11 across at base, the limb 17 mm broad X 12 long (deep) |
green with a purple base
Yes |
Lobules evident in photo, triangular, slightly longer than width at base or as long as width at base. |
no |
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||
no |
|||||||||||
nectar usually clear, |
no |
||||||||||
flower | species habit |
Distribution Altitude |
Hairs | Flowers Per Inflor |
Where two sepals meet, is an outward keel formed? | Corolla form; Corolla size (mm) |
corolla color Radial corolla thickenings? |
Corolla lobules | corona |
* corolla transparent, nectar can be seen through corolla wall
The species in the table above are a subset of the species that grow in Peru and Bolivia. All other Jaltomata species (not in the table) produce clear or nearly clear nectar. Habitat, corolla-form, and elevation vary greatly among the species having red/orange nectar. Thirteen of these species regularly produce this nectar, two of which (J. umbellata and J. aspera) grow in the lomas formation, a fog-fed desert habitat of the west coast of South America having a high level of endemism (Dillon 1997). Other Jaltomata having red/orange nectar grow in higher and moister or seasonally moist habitats.
Jaltomata that produce red/orange nectar are usually woody. One exception, J. calliantha, is herbaceous above-ground but its above-ground parts die back during the dry season. Another possible exception is J. aspera, which has been described by different authors as suffrutescent and herbaceous. I suspect J. aspera is suffrutescent from the herbarium specimens I have seen.
Some of the Jaltomata species having this rare nectar color have tubular to urceolate corollas (see above), while the others have much more open corollas (for example, the corolla of J. paneroi corolla is campanulate, and the corolla of J. aspera is crateriform). All Jaltomata that produce red/orange nectar have corollas that remain open at night (this was directly studied for only some of these species and was inferred for the others based on corolla form). Among the Jaltomata species that have clearish nectar some species have corollas that remain open at night, and others close in the late afternoon opening again the next day.
What makes the red/orange nectar red/orange?
The pigment has not yet been identified. Stacy Smith generously did HPLC on the nectar at Duke University, from samples mailed to her by T. M. on dry filter paper. She wrote "The red in the nectar is not anthocyanins. There may be some related compounds (flavonols) but no red anthocyanins, such as pelargonidin. It is unlikely that the color is from carotenoids because carotenoids are only stable if sequestered in chromoplasts. It couldn't be betalains because Solanaceae don't make those (personal communication March 2009)." Olesen et al. (1998), using proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, identified the red pigment in the nectar of Nescodon sp. as a temperature-sensitive aurone (the nectar they studied "contained 22 -25% w/w hexose-dominated sugar").
Lobules - lobules (when present) alternate with corolla lobes. In the photos above lobules are clearly evident in J. contumacensis.
Radial Corolla Thickenings - these extend, where present, from the base of each stamen to the sinus or lobule of the corolla. In the photos above these are most conspicuous in J. weberbaueri but are also evident in J. paneroi and J. herrerae.
Mione et al. (1994) studied the phylogeny of Jaltomata, but only two species producing red/orange nectar were included. These two species were members of an unresolved lineage, the other species of the lineage produce clear nectar, and so no statement about single versus multiple origins of red/orange can be made with the results of this paper. Many woody Jaltomata species do not produce red/orange nectar.
In Jaltomata red nectar tends to be produced in greater volumes than clear nectar, but this trend is not absolute. At the extremes of variation, on the one hand, are J. paneroi, J. umbellata, J. ventricosa and J. weberbaueri all of which produce copious red/orange nectar. And on the other hand, J. antillana, J. confinis, J. grandiflora, J. procumbens, J. repandidentata and J. sinuosa have been grown by T. M. for study and produce clear nectar in minute amounts. Of these species the nectar volume of only J. sinuosa was measured, producing 0.3 to 1.75 microliters of nectar during its hermaphroditic phase (7 microcapillary tube readings were done on greenhouse plants of two accessions).
The nectar of J. aijana, J. biflora and J. yungayensis is usually clear but can turn amber or orange in color as the flower ages (Mione et al. 2001, unpublished greenhouse observations for J. aijana, Kostyun personal communication for J. aijana & J. yungayensis). For J. biflora, estimates of sugar concentration (refractometer) ranged from 14 to 14.4 (average 14.2%, n = 2) for the pistillate phase, and 26 to 57.6 % (average 39%, n = 5) for the hermaphroditic phase (Mione et al. 2001). Jaltomata sanchez-vegae: microcapillary tube measurements of volume gave 20 to 60 microliters for the hermaphroditic phase (8 measurements), and 18 to 24 microliters during the preceding pistillate phase (two readings). Flowers of J. biflora produce 0 to 47 microliters of nectar.
Acknowledgements:
I thank Segundo Leiva G. and Leon Yacher for their collaboration, and David Spooner for sending me his specimens. I thank Arturo Granda and Graciela Vilcapoma for sending me herbarium specimens of J. aspera and the photo of J. aspera shown above. Gregory J. Anderson and Gabriel Bernardello provided an environment conducive to the birth of this project. Rene Chavez sent to Tilton Davis IV seeds of J. umbellata and T. Davis generously passed the seeds on to me, resulting in the photo above. Stacey Smith (March 2009) generously gave of her time to analze red/orange nectar with HPLC. Jamie Kostyun was the first to demonstrate that, in captivity, the nectar of J. aijana is pale-orange, and I thank her for sharing photos of this.