Tropicos | Name - !Moraea cuspidata Goldblatt & J.C. Manning

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Moraea > Moraea cuspidata

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!Moraea cuspidata Goldblatt & J.C. Manning

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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 6/6/2016)

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 7/12/2016)

Description: Plants 180–300 mm high, with collar of tough fibres around base. Corm 15–25 mm diam., without cormlets at base; tunics of brown to ± black, tough, medium to coarse fibres. Stem simple or 1(2)-branched exceptionally with up to 6 branches, sheathing leaves with dry attenuate tips, (30–)40–55 mm long. Foliage leaf solitary, linear(–linear-filiform), channelled, usually V-shaped in section, leaf halves closely appressed in dry conditions, 1.5–3.0 mm wide (opened flat), erect or trailing distally. Rhipidial spathes with attenuate, dry tips, inner (40–)50–80 mm long, outer ± half as long. Flowers long-lived, pale blue, mauve or violet blue, outer tepal limbs with large white, velvety nectar guides dotted and usually edged with dark violet at bases, lanceolate, half reflexed; outer tepals (20–)26–34 × 10–16 mm, claws (8–)10–12 mm, usually speckled with dark blue to violet dots or purple in midline; inner tepals linear, (8–)10–15 mm long, ascending below, distal 1/3--1/2 usually spreading (± erect when short). Filaments (3–)4–6 mm long, united basally for 0.5–1.8 mm; anthers 4–8 mm long, violet; pollen red (rarely white). Ovary ellipsoid, 11–15 mm long; style branches 8–10 mm long, crests 5–8 mm long, linear. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, 14–16 mm long. Seeds angular, 1.8–2.0 mm long, light brown, testa spongy, thickened on angles. Chromosome number 2n = 12. Flowering time: mid September and October.

Type specimen: Peter Goldblatt - 13462 - NBG

Country: South Africa

South African Province: Northern Cape, Western Cape

Distribution and ecology: fairly widespread and extending from southern Roggeveld and Klein Roggeveld in Northern Cape to the Bonteberg and Voetpadsberg near Touw’s River in Western Cape and in the Swartberg and higher mountains of the Little Karoo (an apparent gap in the range between the Roggeveld and the Swartberg, may be the result of incomplete collecting); in fairly arid habitats, in mountain renosterveld and dry, marginal fynbos, usually in sandy or sandy loam soils derived from sandstones of the Cape or Karoo Systems.

Diagnosis: closely allied to Moraea tripetala, M. cuspidata is recognized immediately by the linear inner tepals up to 15 mm long (rarely less than 10 mm), spreading in the distal half, and usually with a particularly narrow foliage leaf, the leaf halves usually tightly appressed in dry conditions. The brown to almost black corm tunics consist of thickened vertical fibres sometimes with raised ridges. In addition, plants usually have a collar of stiff fibres around the base. The flowers are pale blue to violet with the large, velvety nectar guides spotted with dark blue on a white background. The filaments are usually united for 1.0–1.5 mm but occasionally less, and ± as long as or slightly shorter than the dark purple anthers that bear red pollen. Capsules (where known) are relatively large, 14–16 mm long and the seeds are also relatively large, 1.8–2.0 mm long and unusual in having a pale, spongy testa much thickened into prominent ridges on the angles.

General Notes: the species is sympatric at some sites and even co-blooming with smaller-flowered Moraea amabilis (also allied to M. tripetala) but this species has a broadly channeled foliage leaf, sometimes plane distally and often pilose on the abaxial surface, and consistently short, hair-like inner tepals typically 1.5–2.0 mm long. At sites where they have been recorded growing together pollen of M. amabilis is white, contrasting with the orange-red pollen of M. cuspidata. An outlying record of M. cuspidata from Perdekloof, southeast of Oudtshoorn, probably belongs here. The flowers are exceptionally small, the inner tepals are 8–9 mm long, otherwise consistent with the species.