General Information

COMMON NAMES: Pacific Tomato TRADITIONAL NAMES: Rerei (RR), Mōreirei (MG); Other Polynesian - Taulo‘u (SAM), Sou / Sousou / Sou Vuti / Vuani (FIJ) GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE New Britain - ?Solomons; EXOTIC EXOTIC ?Fiji - Pitcairn, Hawai‘i COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Polynesian, Not naturalised; S.Group (MG only - ?rare?lost); Land, lowlands SIGNIFICANCE LIST: ; Nationally endangered (seriously)?(Fru), Material (Dye) KEY FEATURES: Branching shrub to 3m. LEAVES alternate, ovate, to 35x25cm, margin with triangular and round lobes, hairy especially underneath, base usually unequal; stalk to 10cm. FLOWERS dense clusters, 3-12, lower bisexual, upper male; 2cmØ; petals white, anthers yellow. FRUIT round to oval, fleshy, ripening yellow, hairy becoming hairless.

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea: Present?
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
X	+?X	-		-	-	-	-	-

Northern Group: -
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
-	-	-	-	-	-

Solanum repandum G.Forster
SYNONYMS: Solanum seedii

TAXONOMY: PLANTAE; ANTHOPHYTA (=Angiospermae); MAGNOLIOPSIDA (=Dicotyledones); ASTERIDAE; Solanales; SOLANACEAE

SIGNIFICANCE NOTES -
BIODIVERSITY: Nationally endangered (seriously)
POSITIVE SIGNIFICANCE: ?(Fru), Material (Dye). Comments: A former food in Samoa, and probably elsewhere in Polynesia.

GENERAL NOTE: Origin from Asia or Americas a matter of debate. Solanum section Lasiocarpa has eleven species centred in ne.South America and two in se.Asia and the Pacific. Solanum lasiocarpum is se.Asia to Solomons, and Solanum repandum is New Britain to Pitcairn and Hawai‘i. Symon (1985) suggests that repandum is a cultivar derived from lasiocarpum for spinelessness and larger fruits. It is only found associated with human disturbance, and probably not indigenous in the Pacific. [A.C.Smith, Flora Vitiensis Nova]. But in contrast repandum is only quantitatively different from Solanum sessiliflorum of ne. South America and it might have been brought to the Marquesas as early as 1595 by the Mendana-Quiros expedition. [A.C.Smith, Flora Vitiensis Nova] Whistler (1990) suggests that Solanum repandum might be an ancient Polynesian? introduction from the Americas.

Vouchers:
None Recorded.

References:
p.5/014 A.C.Smith - Flora Vitiensis Nova
p.289 I Cheeseman - Flora of Rarotonga
p.381c Whistler - Ethnobotany of the Cook Islands

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zD03b, zM03b

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