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Solanum lithophilum; photograph Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAMark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Solanum lithophilum F.Muell.

Solanaceae · New South Wales, Northern Territory +3

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Solanum lithophilum, photograph Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 2 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.9°C
Record low -1.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
240mm
2 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–51DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to September and November (October to March and May at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Solanum

Solanum is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant. It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae, comprising around 1,500 species. It also contains the so-called horse nettles, as well as numerous plants cultivated for their ornamental flowers and fruit.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Solanum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (154 mm of 220 mm) falls in October to March and May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.2 °C against a yearly mean of 20.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September and November.

Rain

220 mm in the median year at the habitat, 154 mm of it October to March and May. Wettest month December at 26 mm, driest month August at 10 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 178 mm to 340 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 240 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 220 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 51 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.9 °C, the absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 59 frost nights in 44 years, 1.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.8 °C to 7.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.0 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 42 to 54% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +38 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Solanum lithophilum through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 5.9 °C; 220 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost43.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-1.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0102030405060mm rainDLI 20–51RH 42–54%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 844 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C35 / 32–3734 / 31–3631 / 28–3326 / 23–2921 / 18–2417 / 14–2017 / 14–1920 / 16–2324 / 20–2828 / 24–3231 / 27–3433 / 29–36
Night °C22 / 18–2421 / 18–2318 / 16–2114 / 12–1610 / 9–127 / 6–86 / 5–78 / 6–911 / 9–1314 / 11–1718 / 14–2020 / 16–23
Rain mm24 / 16–5125 / 19–4618 / 13–4412 / 8–2018 / 13–2416 / 11–3015 / 10–2810 / 5–2713 / 8–2719 / 14–2424 / 16–3726 / 19–47
DLI51 / 49–5246 / 45–4741 / 39–4232 / 29–3624 / 21–2920 / 16–2521 / 17–2727 / 23–3337 / 33–4044 / 42–4648 / 47–4950 / 48–51
RH %42 / 40–4744 / 42–4844 / 42–4947 / 43–5151 / 47–5554 / 50–5853 / 47–5749 / 43–5446 / 40–5144 / 39–4943 / 40–4843 / 41–48
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 844 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1263 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2298:6237 (-24.925, 131.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 844 distinct grid cells holding 1263 of the 1265 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2298:6237 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -25.00_131.875, lapse-corrected +38 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 551 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 2932150 (Solanum lithophilum F.Muell., 1649 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeNew South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-31.099, 138.529 · in the densest population, 1060 records (76% of those in range)
Kew's description“desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1395 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1263 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1265 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1012 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 514 km away. 130 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 2932150 (Solanum lithophilum F.Muell.): Kew's file holds it as Solanum lithophilum F.Muell. (accepted); 1,649 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1395 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Solanum lithophilum, photograph 1did not load

Photographs: Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Polycalymma stuartii Polycalymma stuartii Poached Egg Daisy Photo: CC BY, Sharon ReidAcacia aneura Acacia aneura Mulga Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandSwainsona formosa Swainsona formosa Sturt's desert-pea Photo: CC BY, Joe AtkinsonAcacia tetragonophylla Acacia tetragonophylla Dead finish Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandPtilotus obovatus Ptilotus obovatus Prince-of-Wales-feather Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandSenna phyllodinea Senna phyllodinea Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Bryce Watts-Parker

Other Solanum 163 in the reference

Solanum abutiloides Solanum abutiloides Dwarf Tamarillo Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneySolanum acaule Solanum acaule Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Staci OréSolanum aculeastrum Solanum aculeastrum Goat Bitter-apple Photo: CC0, author not statedSolanum aculeatissimum Solanum aculeatissimum Dutch eggplant Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloSolanum aethiopicum Solanum aethiopicum Chinese scarlet eggplant Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizSolanum africanum Solanum africanum Solanaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo Solanum ajanhuiri Solanaceae Solanum albidum Solanum albidum Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, biped_cubSolanum aligerum Solanum aligerum Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Juan Carlos Fonseca MataSolanum aloysiifolium Solanum aloysiifolium Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Carla Florencia RodríguezSolanum americanum Solanum americanum American black nightshade Photo: CC BY, Frederick NunleySolanum amygdalifolium Solanum amygdalifolium Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Holger Braun all 164 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Solanum ellipticum var. mollibaccalis. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFO

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
F.Muell.
Native to
New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland +2
Wild records
1395 in range · 1012 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Solanum lithophilum F.Muell. (plant_name_id 3033753), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1649 records of GBIF's key 2932150, Solanum lithophilum F.Muell. (Kew's file holds it as Solanum lithophilum F.Muell. (accepted)): the GBIF download; 13 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 6 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -25.00_131.875, lapse-corrected +38 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 819848-1, POWO 819848-1
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia redirects Solanum lithophilum to Solanum ellipticum
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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