Species
+

Solanum laciniatum Aiton

Gelappter Nachtschatten (DE), Kangaroo-Apple, Kangaroo-apple (EN), large-flower kangaroo-apple

Climate known 72 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Solanum laciniatum a soft-wooded shrub native to the east coast of Australia, notably Victoria and Tasmania. It also occurs in Western Australia and New Zealand, where some authorities consider it to be introduced. It is similar to Solanum aviculare, with which it shares the common name kangaroo apple. The common name refers to the likeness of the leaf shape to a kangaroo paw print. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Solanum laciniatum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Solanum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Aiton
Native to
New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania +5
Wild records
1463 in range· 880 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Feb, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
789mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 86 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–45DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 789 mm a year, wettest July at 86 mm, driest February at 44 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 4.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Solanum aviculare var. laciniatum (Aiton) Domin; Solanum laciniatum f. australiense Geras.; Solanum laciniatum f. cultum Geras.; Solanum laciniatum f. laciniatum; Solanum laciniatum f. novozelandicum Geras. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (591 mm of 789 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 9.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 789 mm a year, wettest July at 86 mm, driest February at 44 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

789 mm a year at the habitat, 591 mm of it May to December. Wettest month July at 86 mm, driest February at 44 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 589 mm to 1247 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 4.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 4.0 °C, the absolute minimum 1.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 2.8 °C to 9.4 °C), warmest day 22.3 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 12 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Feb; mean night from 6 °C in Jul to 14 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 789 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 769 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 1.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°32.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)1.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–45RH 58–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 769 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 18–2522 / 18–2621 / 17–2318 / 15–1915 / 12–1612 / 10–1412 / 9–1312 / 10–1414 / 12–1616 / 13–1818 / 15–2120 / 16–23
Night °C14 / 12–1614 / 12–1613 / 10–1511 / 8–149 / 6–127 / 4–106 / 3–96 / 3–108 / 5–109 / 6–1111 / 8–1312 / 10–14
Rain mm46 / 24–8244 / 21–7951 / 32–8857 / 41–9471 / 48–11784 / 53–13286 / 55–14186 / 56–13174 / 50–11267 / 50–11163 / 38–9660 / 37–100
DLI45 / 41–4840 / 35–4331 / 27–3421 / 18–2414 / 12–1611 / 9–1313 / 10–1418 / 15–2025 / 23–2834 / 31–3741 / 38–4444 / 41–47
RH %58 / 54–6258 / 54–6359 / 55–6259 / 57–6362 / 60–6463 / 60–6762 / 60–6661 / 59–6560 / 58–6359 / 57–6259 / 56–6158 / 55–62

Each figure is the median across the 769 grid cells holding the 1442 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2570:6473 (-38.525, 143.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 769 distinct grid cells holding the 1442 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2570:6473 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -38.50_143.750, lapse-corrected +121 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 242 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Chatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast, Vietnam, California
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-37.841, 144.92 · in the densest population, 898 records (61% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1463 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 880 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 30 km away. 300 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 21 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1463 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Solanum laciniatumSolanum laciniatumSolanum laciniatumSolanum laciniatumSolanum laciniatumSolanum laciniatumSolanum laciniatumSolanum laciniatum

Photographs: (c) mcstanley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Henry Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Michael Berardozzi, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Solanum laciniatum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Methods of assessing leaf‐fracture properties
Nuvan Aranwela, Gordon D. Sanson, Jennifer Read (1999) · New Phytologist
Sonication Dispensing of Pollen from Solanum laciniatum Flowers
M. J. King, Stephen L. Buchmann (1996) · Functional Ecology
Comparative water loss from leaves of Solanum laciniatum plants cultured in vitro and in vivo
Lindsey Conner, Anthony J. Conner (1984) · Plant Science Letters
Changes in solasodine content during the development of Solanum laciniatum Ait
Jane E. Lancaster, Jay D. Mann (1975) · New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research
Synthesis and Characterization of Nicotiana-Solanum Graft Chimeras
RANA L. KADDOURA, S. H. Mantell (1991) · Annals of Botany
Factors Affecting in vitro Shoot Regeneration on Leaf Discs of Solanum laciniatum AIT.
M.E. Davies, Margaret M. Dale (1979) · Zeitschrift für Pflanzenphysiologie

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Solanum 13 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.