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Moraea tanquana Goldblatt & J.C. Manning 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: Bothalia 39(1): 4–5, fig. 3A–C. 2009. (Bothalia) Name publication detail
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 7/5/2016)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 7/5/2016)
Description: Plants up to 0.5 m high. Corm subglobose, ± 20 mm diam.; tunics of coarse, dark brown to blackish fibres. Stem up to 3-branched from upper nodes, sheathing leaves green, attenuate. Foliage leaves 3, lowermost basal, linear and channelled, 2–5 mm wide, ± 3/4 as long as stem, upper 2 leaves cauline, ± as long as basal. Rhipidial spathes green but dry and membranous apically with brownish cusps; inner ± 30 mm long, outer ± half as long. Flowers fugaceous, pale blue or mauve with a yellow cup, and small, rounded, yellow nectar guides at bases of all tepal limbs, tepal claws minutely pubescent at base, 8–9 mm long, ascending and forming wide cup, limbs spreading horizontally; outer tepals obovate, ± 25 mm long, limb 15–16 × 12 mm, inner tepals slightly shorter, ± 22 mm long. Filaments ± 10 mm long, reaching to mouth of floral cup or exserted ± 1 mm, united, column cylindric, minutely pubescent at base; anthers erect, contiguous, 4–5 mm long at anthesis (shrinking to 3 mm after dehiscence), yellow, concealing style branches. Ovary ovoid, 4–5 mm long, exserted from spathes; style branches ± 1 mm long, concealed by anthers; stigma lobes bifid, crests lacking. Capsules and seeds unknown. Flowering time: August, probably also in late July.
Country: South Africa
South African Province: Northern Cape
Distribution and ecology: a rare species known from a single hill in the Tanqua Karoo National Park east of Leeuberg; plants occur on clay soils on a dolerite outcrop.
Diagnosis: most closely related to Moraea deserticola from the Knersvlakte, M. tanquana is recognized by the three linear foliage leaves up to 5 mm wide, pale blue to mauve flowers with subequal tepals ± 22 mm long and united filaments and contiguous anthers that conceal short style branches lacking crests. A smaller plant, M. deserticola has narrow foliage leaves 2–3 mm wide, tepals 30–36 mm long, anthers 6–6.5 mm long (shrinking after anthesis to 5 mm) that remain contiguous around the style. M. tanquana has short anthers, 4–5 mm long that exceed the style branches and enclose them. The style divides opposite the lower third of the anthers so that the stigmatic tips of the short style branches, ± 1 mm long emerge from between middle of the ± contiguous anthers. The flower of M. tanquana also resembles that of M. deserticola in general aspect, but its shorter anthers extend beyond the floral cup, whereas the anthers are longer in M. deserticola and their bases are held within the floral cup. The ovary is conspicuously veined with dark red in M. deserticola thus unlike the uniformly green ovary of M. tanquana.

 
 
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