New Zealand has two shrubby (arborescent) poroporo, S. aviculare and S. laciniatum. Both were formerly widespread across all the main islands of the archipelago. Recently it has been suggested that Solanum aviculare is declining from large parts of its former range in the northern part of New Zealand, and for this reason this species (as S. aviculare var. aviculare) has been listed by the New Zealand Indigenous Plant Threat Listing Panel as 'At Risk / Declining'. This project intends to collect data on the range and abundance of both species within New Zealand. This will help determine how abundant they are and so test whether the current threat ranking for S. aviculare is appropriate.

The taxonomy of Solanum aviculare is complicated - currently the New Zealand Flora series (and updates thereof) accept two varieties - S. aviculare var. aviculare and S. aviculare var. latifolium, though a third S. aviculare var. albiflorum (with uniformly white flowers) is sometimes recognised.

For this project I recognise S. aviculare var. aviculare (see http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=2263), var. latifolium (see http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=321) and S. laciniatum (see http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=2261). Solanum aviculare var. albiflorum is regarded as stable 'white-flowered" sport of S. aviculare var. aviculare.

Accurate identification of Solanum aviculare and S. laciniatum can only be made when plants are flowering or in fruit.

Flowering material of S. aviculare (var. aviculare and var. latifolium) differs from S. laciniatum by the corolla of the flower which is broadly bell-shaped to round, up to 40 mm diameter, with lanceolate corolla lobes (the flowers of S. aviculare may also be white, lavender, dark blue or white striped dark blue). The flowers of S. lacinatum are larger (up to 50 mm diameter), with a round corolla, usually dark violet (very rarely white), with very broad corolla lobes whose margins frilled or ruffled, and with distinctly notched apices.

The seeds of S. aviculare (var. aviculare and var. latifolium) are smaller than those of S. laciniatum (< 2 mm diameter cf. 2.2-2.5 mm diameter in S. laciniatum).

Therefore for the purposes of this project it is important that good, clear images of the flowers or fruit (with measurements of the seeds) are posted. Luckily both species tend to flower for most of the year and the flowers are easily photographed. less ↑