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!Babiana fragrans (Jacq.) Steud. Search in The Plant ListSearch in IPNISearch in Australian Plant Name IndexSearch in NYBG Virtual HerbariumSearch in Muséum national d'Histoire naturelleSearch in Type Specimen Register of the U.S. National HerbariumSearch in Virtual Herbaria AustriaSearch in JSTOR Plant ScienceSearch in SEINetSearch in African Plants Database at Geneva Botanical GardenAfrican Plants, Senckenberg Photo GallerySearch in Flora do Brasil 2020Search in Reflora - Virtual HerbariumSearch in Living Collections Decrease font Increase font Restore font
 

Published In: Nomenclator Botanicus. Editio secunda 2: 176. 1840. (Nomencl. Bot. (ed. 2)) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 11/23/2016)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 11/23/2016)
Description: Plants 70–200 mm high. Stem erect, often branched, velvety. Leaves lanceolate to oblong, ascending, to 20 mm wide, lightly pleated, shortly hairy. Spike ± erect, 4–10-flowered; bracts green with dry rusty tips, usually densely hairy, 12–18 mm long, inner usually slightly shorter than outer, divided to base. Flowers zygomorphic, pale deep violet, occasionally creamy yellow, lower lateral tepals usually with narrow median streak or blotch, and with dark blue or purple markings near base, lightly to intensely fragrant; perianth tube narrowly funnel-shaped, 18–20 mm long; tepals subequal, dorsal ascending, 18–22 mm long, lower tepals joined to upper laterals for 2–3 mm, lower ± 18 mm long. Stamens unilateral; filaments suberect, 12–16 mm long; anthers 6–7 mm long, dark blue. Ovary densely hairy; style dividing between base and middle of anthers. Flowering time: mainly late August and September.
Country: South Africa
South African Province: Western Cape
Distribution and ecology: Western Cape, extending from Ceres and Malmesbury to the Cape Peninsula; on sandstone, granite and occasionally clay slopes.
Diagnosis: seemingly relatively unspecialized in its section, Babiana fragrans is the type species of the genus. It is recognized by the subequal, spreading tepals, the dorsal only slightly longer than the lower, and small pale markings edged in darker blue or purple on the lower tepals. The perianth tube is about as long or slightly longer than the dorsal tepal and the erect, usually branched stem bears spikes of up to 10 flowers. The suberect stamens are unilateral and the anthers parallel and contiguous, and usually dark blue. The soft-textured, hairy leaves are lightly pleated and often oblong rather than the usual sword-shape in sect. Babiana. Both Ker Gawler, when describing the synonym B. plicata, and Lewis (1959) remarked on the strong, pleasing fragrance, likened by Lewis to that of a carnation. Somewhat variable across its range, B. fragrans from the interior southwestern Cape has a more strongly bilabiate flower with the dorsal tepal up to 5 mm longer than the lower and the upper lateral tepals are united for a short distance with the lower, thus forming a more pronounced lip than is evident in plants from the Cape Peninsula and nearby.
General Notes: called by Lewis in her account of the genus Babiana plicata and subsequently known as B. disticha because the name B. plicata is illegitimate and superfluous, this species has a confused history (see Goldblatt & Manning 2007). Babiana plicata was a new species based on a plant illustrated in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine but by citing the earlier Gladiolus fragrans Jacq., Ker Gawler’s species is illegitimate. The current name, based on G. fragrans, has been in use since 2007, although the combination dates from 1840. The name B. fragrans Eckl. (1827), for specimens of B. nana, is invalid and cannot be taken into account for nomenclatural purposes.

 


 

Specimens whose coordinates are enclosed in square brackets [ ] have been mapped to a standard reference mark based on political units.
 
 
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