Named in honour of Daniel Carl Solander (1733–1782), Swedish botanist and student of Linnaeus who accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage to the Pacific (1768–1771).

Solandra grandiflora Sw.

Scandent shrubs or woody lianes, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves alternate; lamina entire, ± coriaceous. Flowers solitary, terminal, large, bisexual, slightly zygomorphic. Calyx usually tubular, irregularly 2–5-lobed, not enlarged in fruit. Corolla funnel- or cup-shaped or salverform, 5-lobed, imbricate in bud, entire or usually fimbriate. Stamens 5, ± equal, included or exserted; base of filaments hairy; anthers dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary 4-locular, partially inferior; stigma slightly 2-lobed. Fruit a leathery, conical berry. Seeds numerous, reniform, flattened.

A tropical American genus of 10 species; 1 species naturalised on Norfolk Island.

Several species are in cultivation as ornamentals mostly in tropical and subtropical gardens; see Ellison (1999: 502–503), Cullen et al. (eds) (2000), Spencer (2002: 123).

Bernardello, L.M. & Hunziker, A.T. (1987). A synoptical revision of Solandra (Solanaceae). Nordic Journal of Botany 7(6): 639–652.

Cullen, J. et al. (eds) (2000). Solandra, The European Garden Flora Volume VI. Dicotyledons (Part IV), p. 253. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge).

Ellison, D. (1999). Cultivated Plants of the World. (New Holland: London).

Green, P.S. (1994). Solanaceae, in Wilson,  A.J.G.  (ed.), Flora of Australia 49: 293–305. (Australian Government Publishing Service: Canberra); Solandra pp. 303–304.

Spencer, R.D. (2002). Solandra, in Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. The identification of garden & cultivated plants. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3, p. 123. (University of New South Wales Press: Sydney).

Published 14 April 2021. Adapted from Green (1994: 303). Updated by P.G. Kodela (April 2021).