page_title: Solanum lycocarpum
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Solanum lycocarpum / Description
caption_attribution_description: Solanum lycocarpum - SOLANACEAE - Jardim Botânico de Brasília - DF - Brasil
context_page_description: Solanum lycocarpum, or wolf apple, is common in the Brazilian savanna, the Cerrado ecoregion. The plant is called lobeira or fruta-do-lobo in Portuguese.
  The name "wolf apple" comes from the fact that they account for more than 50% of the Maned wolf's diet. Likewise, the scientific name "lycocarpum" is formed from Latinized Greek elements "lyco-", meaning "wolf", and "carpum" meaning "fruit".
context_section_description: The wolf apple plant is a flowering shrub or small tree with round open crown, ranging in height from 1.2 to 5 m.  The leaves are large (16 to 28 cm long), simple but deeply lobed, tough, and covered in a soft grey-white fuzz, in alternate disposition.
  Plants flower through the year, but more intensely during the rainy season, from late fall to early spring. The flowers are similar to those of the bitter nightshade: star-shaped, with five sepals, five blue or purple petals fused at the base, and five large yellow anthers that release pollen through an opening at the tip.  The flowers are arranged in helical monochasal cyme, opening from the base up. Flowers lack nectar, and are either male or hermaphroditic.  The latter produce fruit after cross-pollination by several species of pollen-collecting bees, including Xylocopa virescens, X. frontalis, Oxaea flavescens, Centris scopipes, C. fuscata, Bombus morio, Exomalopsis sp., Pseudaugochloropsis graminea, Apis mellifera, and  Megachile benigna.
  Fruit production occurs mostly between July and January. The fruits are large, up to 20 cm in diameter and weighing up to over 900 g, and contain up to 500 dark brown comma-shaped seeds, about 7 × 5 × 2 mm.  The rind is thin and lustrous, and remains green even after ripening. The pulp is yellowish, soft, sweetish and extremely aromatic.  They resemble the tomato in external shape and internal morphology, but also the eggplant for the texture and color of the flesh. The maned wolf is an important seed-spreading agent.
caption: Fruit
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