Solanum symonii

Solanum symonii is an erect or spreading, softly-wooded shrub that typically grows to a height of and is more or less glabrous apart from a few hairs on its growing points. The leaves are egg-shaped to lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The leaves lack prickles and are shallowly lobed. The flowers are borne in groups of two to six on a peduncle up to long, the rachis long, each flower on a pedicel long. The sepals are broadly triangular, long, the sepal lobes about long, the petals pale lavender-purple and long with notched lobes. Flowering occurs throughout the year with a peak from July to October, and the fruit is an oval to egg-shaped berry long. ==Taxonomy==

This species was first formally described in 1859 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Solanum fasciculatum in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from specimens collected near the Phillips River. Mueller's name was illegitimate because it had already been used for a different species (Solanum fasciculatum Vell., now known as Athenaea fasciculata). In 1963, Hansjörg Eichler changed the name to Solanum symonii in the journalTaxon. The specific epithet (symonii) honours David Eric Symon. ==Distribution and habitat==

Solanum symonii grows in sandy soil on coastal limestone and sand dunes from Geraldton in north-western Western Australia to the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. ==References==