Solanum platyphyllum is rather frequently found along 
the edge of cultivated plots and secondary growth in the 
Leticia area of the Colombian Amazonas. Like most 
other species of Solanum with edible fruits known from 
the Amazonian area, this species is not purposefully cul- 
tivated but springs up in abandoned sites from seeds 
which are cast away with uneaten portions of the fruit. 
The whitish fruits are rather sweet and are sought after 
for food by the Tikuna Indians of the region. 
Little is known about Solanum platyphyllum as an eco- 
nomic plant. A collection (A7ruhoff'9121) trom Sao Paulo 
de Olivenea, a Brazilian town on the Amazon (Solimoes) 
River slightly below Leticia, bears the notation: 
‘*Planted by Indians.*” Since the Indians of this area 
are likewise ‘Tikunas, it may be that the plant is used 
only by this tribe. The species probably occurs also in 
Peruvian territory upstream from Leticia, but we have 
no information concerning its existence and use there. 
Solanum quitoense Lamarck Ilustr. 2 (1797) 16. 
Solanum angulatum Ruiz & Pavon FI]. Peruv. 2 (1799) 
36, t. 170, fig. a. 
Solanum quitense Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth Nov. 
Gen. & Sp. 3 (1818) 25 
Shrub unarmed, robust, rank, up to 5-7 feet tall (rarely 
taller). Branches stout, terete, densely soft stellate- 
pubescent: wood soft. ‘'wigs densely soft-pubescent. 
Leaves coarsely membranaceous, usually oblong-ovate 
in outline, at maturity up to about 50 em. (usually 85— 
40 cm.) long, 82 em. wide, basally clasping and cordate, 
apically abruptly acuminate, marginally distantly, deeply 
and regularly sinuate, strongly petiolate (petiole terete, 
up to about 15-18 cm. long, densely and softly stellate- 
pubescent): upper surface white stellate-pubescent : 
nether surface softly and very densely stellate-pubescent, 
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