• Arts
• Business
• Computers
• Games
• Health
• Home
• Kids and Teens
• News
• Recreation
• Reference
• Regional
• Science
• Shopping
• Society
• Sports

Solanum cornutum

AgroAtlas - Weeds - Solanum cornutum Lam. - Buffalobur. Family Solanaceae Juss., genus Solanum L. Plant is 30-100 cm in height, densely covered with stellate hairs. Stem, branches, petioles and leaf ribs, flower stalks and calyx are also covered with firm subulate stramineous thorns 5-12 mm in length. Stem is cylindrical, ligneous, highly branched, dusty-greyish in colour. One freely growing plant can produce up to 70 branches, the diameter of bush can reach 70 cm. Tap root is branched, penetrating down to depths of 3 m. Leaves are alternate, with long petioles, lyrate, deeply pinnatipartite, 5-10 cm in length. Flowers are divided into 5 parts. At first flowers are aggregated at the end of short (2-3 cm) flower stalk, later they are arranged in a raceme due to stalk elongation. Corolla is yellow, 2-3 cm in diameter, with lanceolate-ovate lobes. Calyx has ovate-lanceolate lobes, enlarged and nearly globular during fruiting, tightly fitting the berry. This plant flowers in June-September, bears fruits in August-October. Fruit is a unilocular globular semidry berry. Fruit dehisces when ripe. One plant can produce up to 180 berries; each of them contains 50-120 seeds. Seeds are dark-brown or black, rounded-reniform, compressed laterally; their surface is reticular and wrinkled. Newly ripened seeds do not germinate; they have to be dormant for 5-6 months, germinating only after over-wintering in soil. Seed viability can be maintained in soil for 10 years. Minimum temperature for seed germination is 10-12œC, optimum is 22-25œC. Seeds can germinate from depths of 1-15 cm, germinating best of all from depths of 3-5 cm. S.cornutum only propagates by seeds; after seeds ripen the plants easily break off from their roots, rolling for great distances with the help of wind. After shattering, the seeds of S.cornutum are spread by wind and mud splatter from wheels of vehicles.

Contact Information