Solanum acaule

Solanum acaule is a low-growing perennial herb in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), native to the high Andes from Peru and Bolivia to northern Argentina at elevations of 3,000-4,500 meters. The plant is acaulescent or nearly so, forming a compact rosette of leaves arising directly from a stout underground stem and tuber-bearing stolons. The tubers are small, rounded, and frost-tolerant, an adaptation to the cold puna environment. Leaves are pinnately compound, 5-15 cm long, with 3-5 pairs of broadly ovate, somewhat fleshy leaflets and small interjected leaflets along the rachis. Inflorescences are short, few-flowered cymes held just above the leaves; flowers have a rotate corolla 2-3 cm across that is pale violet to bluish-purple with a yellow central star, and the typical Solanum cone of yellow anthers. Berries are globose, 1-2 cm in diameter, green and hard, ripening to yellow-green when fully mature.