Species
+

Solanum quitoense Lam.

Lulu-Frucht, Naranjilla, Quito-orange, Quito-orange

Climate known 56 photographs
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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 quitoense, known as naranjilla in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama and as lulo in Colombia, is a tropical perennial plant from northwestern South America. The specific name for this species of nightshade means "from Quito."

Text from Wikipedia, “Solanum quitoense”, 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
Lam.
Native to
Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela +4
Wild records
1392 in range· 472 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Mar, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2353mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 285 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–33DLI
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 (March to June and September to December at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2353 mm a year, wettest May at 285 mm, driest January at 134 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.7 °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 angulatum Ruiz & Pav.; Solanum macrocarpon Molina; Solanum macrocarpon Pav.; Solanum macrocarpon Pav. ex Dunal; Solanum nollanum Britton and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to June and September to December at the habitat (not shifted)).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1783 mm of 2353 mm) takes 8 months, March to June and September to December. Mean temperature moves 0.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 2353 mm a year, wettest May at 285 mm, driest January at 134 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2353 mm a year at the habitat, 1783 mm of it March to June and September to December. Wettest month May at 285 mm, driest January at 134 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1168 mm to 4655 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 27 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 33 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 13.7 °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 13.7 °C, the absolute minimum 10.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 8.7 °C to 20.6 °C), warmest day 21.7 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.7 °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: 67 to 70% 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 yearA flat year: mean day about 22 °C and mean night about 14 °C in every month, so the cold quarter is shaded by rounding only. 2353 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 715 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 10.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)10.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 27–33RH 67–70 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 715 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 °C21 / 17–2721 / 17–2722 / 17–2822 / 17–2721 / 17–2721 / 17–2721 / 16–2621 / 17–2721 / 17–2721 / 17–2721 / 17–2621 / 17–26
Night °C14 / 9–2114 / 9–2114 / 9–2215 / 10–2215 / 10–2214 / 9–2114 / 9–2114 / 9–2014 / 9–2014 / 9–2114 / 9–2114 / 9–21
Rain mm134 / 56–368137 / 64–360184 / 86–400237 / 121–454285 / 103–531194 / 59–495149 / 34–446150 / 34–487198 / 59–535263 / 99–589246 / 104–436176 / 80–334
DLI31 / 25–3433 / 26–3733 / 26–3930 / 24–3728 / 23–3327 / 23–3429 / 23–3631 / 24–3733 / 24–3830 / 23–3628 / 23–3429 / 24–33
RH %67 / 61–7567 / 61–7467 / 61–7368 / 63–7469 / 64–7469 / 61–7667 / 59–7567 / 58–7568 / 60–7670 / 63–7670 / 65–7669 / 63–75

Each figure is the median across the 715 grid cells holding the 1351 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 2003:2088 (-10.175, -75.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.1 °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 715 distinct grid cells holding the 1351 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2003:2088 (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 -10.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected -346 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1492 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.
NativeCosta Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru· introduced: Jawa, Nicaragua, Cuba, Puerto Rico
Kew's description“seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker4.851, -74.347 · in the densest population, 911 records (65% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1392 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 472 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 114 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 41 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 1392 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Solanum quitoenseSolanum quitoenseSolanum quitoenseSolanum quitoenseSolanum quitoenseSolanum quitoenseSolanum quitoenseSolanum quitoense

Photographs: (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); (c) Nicolás Baresch Uribe, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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 quitoense, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Identifying Carotenoids and Phenolic Compounds In Naranjilla (Solanum quitoense Lam. Var. Puyo Hybrid), an Andean Fruit
Anne‐Laure Gancel, Pascaline Alter, Claudie Dhuique‐Mayer, Jenny Ruales (2008) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Optimization of spray drying conditions for lulo (Solanum quitoense L.) pulp
Marta Igual, Simone Ramires, L.H. Mosquera, Nuria Martínez‐Navarrete (2014) · Powder Technology
Chemical and sensory comparison of fresh and dried lulo (Solanum quitoense Lam.) fruit aroma
Diana Paola Forero, Carlos E. Orrego, Devin G. Peterson, Coralia Osorio (2014) · Food Chemistry
Diversity and plant growth-promoting functions of diazotrophic/N-scavenging bacteria isolated from the soils and rhizospheres of two species of Solanum
Mônica Yorlady Alzate Zuluaga, Karina Maria Lima Milani, Leandro Simões Azeredo Gonçalves, André Luíz Martinez de Oliveira (2020) · PLoS ONE
Chemical characterization, antioxidant properties, and volatile constituents of naranjilla (Solanum quitoense Lam.) cultivated in Costa Rica
Óscar Acosta, Ana M. Pérez, Fabrice Vaillant (2026) · Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición
Contenido total de fenoles y actividad antioxidante de pulpa de seis frutas tropicales
E. Ramírez Moreno, Blanca L. Ortíz, Luz Patricia Restrepo (2015) · Revista Colombiana de Química
Native Colombian Fruits and Their by-Products: Phenolic Profile, Antioxidant Activity and Hypoglycaemic Potential
Monica Rosa Loizzo, Paolo Lucci, Óscar Núñez, Rosa Tundis (2019) · Foods
Jasmonic acid and nitric oxide protects naranjilla (Solanum quitoense) against infection by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. quitoense by eliciting plant defense responses
Ana Cristina Ávila, J. Ochoa, Karina Proaño, M. Carmen Martı́nez (2019) · Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology
Lulo (Solanum quitoense Lam.) reproductive physiology: A review
Fernando Ramírez, Jose Kallarackal, Thomas L. Davenport (2018) · Scientia Horticulturae
Effects of foliar urea application on lulo (Solanum quitoense cv. septentrionale) plants grown under different waterlogging and nitrogen conditions
Nixon Flórez-Velasco, Helber Enrique Balaguera-López, Hermann Restrepo-Díaz (2015) · Scientia Horticulturae
Foliar brassinosteroid analogue (DI-31) sprays increase drought tolerance by improving plant growth and photosynthetic efficiency in lulo plants
Cristian Camilo Castañeda-Murillo, Javier Gustavo Rojas-Ortiz, Alefsi David Sánchez-Reinoso, Cristhian Camilo Chávez-Arias (2022) · Heliyon

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 73 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.