Saracha alata is almost certainly a synonym of Jaltomata procumbens

Link to homepage of Jaltomata

The information on this page may be cited as a communication with the author professor Thomas Mione, Central Connecticut State University, Biology Department, Copernicus Hall, 1615 Stanley Street, New Britain, Connecticut 06050-4010, United States of America.

Saracha alata Dunal

Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis 13(1): 431. 1852.

Take a look at the holotype in the photos below and I am sure you will agree - you are looking at a Jaltomata. However, the flowers are face down, so I can not confidently identify this specimen.

Where was the type collected?
On a NY photospecimen (Neg. no. 48261) someone wrote "Jalapae i.e. Jalapa, Edo. Veracruz, Mexico?!," indicating that they see the word "Jalapae" in the photo and this may indicate that the plant was collected in Jalapa, Veracruz.
Also, on the labels of the photospecimens, we can see "According to C. V. Morton the original loc. Peru, is in error." The photospecimens show, in the photos themselves (not the label added to the specimen), "Sessé, Mociño ..."

However, Sessé & Mociño never collected in Peru!

One can see "Herb Pavon" on the label of the holotype (see photo, below) but this does not mean that Pavón collected the specimen. M. Nee (1980) wrote on a Saracha alata photospecimen owned by F "Dunal based Saracha alata Dunal on a single specimen in the Boissier herbarium, now at G. Many Sessé & Mociño specimens were acquired by Pavon and the labels say merely Pavon and Peru."

Photospecimens of the specimens, presumably isotypes, at "Herbarium Horti Botanici Matritensis": I see a curved style (on the photospecimen at NY, Neg. No. 48260) and this suggests J. repandidentata or J. darcyana but the style of J. procumbens can become curved during pressing/mounting. This specimen shows an inflorescence with no fewer than eight flowers per inflorescence. On another photospecimen (Neg. no. 48261 F, NY) I see about 9 flowers per inflorescence. On the photospecimen at WIS (Neg. no. 29719) I see up to 14 flowers per inflorescence.

Aída Alvarez (1996, page 98) correctly excluded Saracha alata from Saracha (Systematics of Saracha, Masters Thesis, University of Missouri-Saint Louis).

Miers once treated this species as a Witheringia (Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 2 11: 92. 1853) but it is clearly not a Witheringia.

The holotype was annoted by someone as Solanum filiforme Peru (see photo immediately below), but I don't know if this specimen is the type of S. filiforme.

The above two photographs are the holotype owned by G (Photos by Thomas Mione).