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(Last Modified On 6/21/2016)
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Description:
Plants 70–120(–180) mm high, usually ± acaulescent. Stem with 2–4 short branches borne close to ground, all ± equal in length. Leaves overlapping to form a tight fan, sheaths completely enclosing stem and much exceeding blades, blades oblong, mostly 7–15 × 5–7(–10) mm, obtuse or acute with tips often hooked; margins thickened especially abaxially, thickenings often crenate to slightly crisped. Rhipidia 2-flowered; inner spathe mostly 45–55 mm long, outer 35–38 mm long, sheathing in lower two thirds, arching outward distally. Flowers on pedicels 15–23 mm long; lasting two days, pale to watery yellow with darker yellow to brown or orange margins, nectaries small, at base of tepals, claws forming a narrow cup, ± 12 mm deep, ± 7 mm wide at rim, faintly sweet-scented; outer tepals 32–40 × ± 9 mm, attenuate, tips slightly coiled, claws slender, 10–13 mm long, inner tepals 30–37 mm long. Stamens with filaments united in a column ± 10 mm long, free in upper ± 1 mm; anther thecae divergent, initially ± 2.5 mm long, ± 1.5 mm long after dehiscence; pollen orange. Ovary fusiform, (15–)18–25 mm long, with a beak 8–12 mm long; style branches ± 1.5 mm long, dividing into diverging, prominently fringed arms, ± 1.5 mm long; stigmas on small lobes below tips of style arms and arching over anthers. Capsules ovoid, 15–25 mm long. Seeds angular, irregularly 5 or 6-sided, ± 3 mm diam., brown, shiny. Flowering time: August and September.
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South African Province:
Western Cape
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Distribution and ecology:
with a recorded range covering a linear distance of about 40 km, Ferraria brevifolia has one of the narrowest distributions of any member of the genus. Records are mostly from the immediate vicinity of Nuwerus, but plants have also been collected near Bitterfontein to the north—its most northern station is just 10 km north of the town. Plants occur on shrub-covered slopes of gritty, granite-derived ground.
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Diagnosis:
distinctive in Ferraria, the leaves of F. brevifolia form a tight, 2-ranked fan and have elongate sheaths 40–80 mm long, much exceeding the short, ovate, obtuse blades, 7–15 mm long. The blades, usually less than half as long as the sheaths, have relatively thick margins and oblique, acute or apiculate, hooked tips. The pale yellow flowers, in contrast, are virtually identical to those of F. macrochlamys and have a narrow floral cup, ± 12 mm deep, and tepal limbs, 22–28 mm long, with crisped, light brown or rarely reddish brown margins. The flowers produce a faint, slightly sweet scent. They can be distinguished from those of its apparent nearest relative, F. macrochlamys, if at all, by their somewhat longer outer tepals with long, tapering loosely coiled tips.
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General Notes:
although only formally described in 1954, an early collection of the species, and possibly the first, Schlechter 11031, made in 1897, bears the annotation ‘F. namaquensis Schltr.’ in Schlechter’s hand.
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Pollination:
the flowers last two days and secrete small quantities of nectar of the low concentration, ± 6.4 % sucrose equivalents, typical of the F. uncinata alliance. There are no reports of pollination in the species.
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