Tropicos | Name - !Ixia altissima Goldblatt & J.C. Manning

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Ixia > Ixia altissima

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!Ixia altissima Goldblatt & J.C. Manning

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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 9/2/2016)

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 9/2/2016)

Description : Plants 0.9–1.2 m high. Corm 15–18 mm diam.; mature tunics not known. Stem simple or with 1–2 branches subtended by translucent, attenuate bracts and prophylls up to 8 mm long. Leaves 4, lower 3 ± basal, reaching to ± middle of stem, blades linear to linear-sword-shaped, (3–)4–10 mm wide, firm-textured, margins and main vein and often a pair of secondary veins thickened and hyaline (at least when dry), uppermost leaf largely sheathing. Main spike slender, weakly flexuose, 14–20-flowered, lateral spikes 6–14-flowered; bracts dry, membranous, translucent, flecked with brown in upper half, ± 7 mm long, outer usually with 3 prominent veins and 3-toothed, inner bracts sometimes slightly shorter than outer, 2-veined and 2-toothed. Flowers rotate, mauve-pink; perianth tube narrowly funnel-shaped, ± 4 mm long, filiform and clasping style below, flared in distal ± 2 mm; tepals spreading, oblong-ovate, 12–13 × ± 4 mm. Filaments inserted a base of wide part of tube, ± 4 mm long, ± white; anthers oblong, ± 3 mm long, dehiscing fully, yellow. Style dividing opposite middle 1/3 of anthers, branches ± 2 mm long, falcate, tubular, arching outward between or shortly overtopping anthers. Flowering time: November to mid December.

Country : South Africa

South African Province : Western Cape

Distribution and ecology : known from two sites in the central and southern Cederberg in Western Cape, the Matjies River Nature Reserve and Gonnafontein to the south; along stream banks or in marshy seeps on sandstone derived soil.

Diagnosis : a tall plant, sometimes standing over 1 metre high and flowering late in the season, well into December, Ixia altissima has anthers with the vestigial connective and involute style branches, stigmatic only at the tips, characteristic of sect. Dichone but the funnel-shaped perianth tube with the filaments inserted in the middle of the upper part of the tube are unusual for the section, in which other species have the tube virtually filiform throughout. The perianth tube, only ± 4 mm long, and the pale floral bracts are reminiscent of two Roggeveld species of the section, I. rigida and I. trifolia, the former also flowering relatively late in the season, often in November. Both share with I. altissima relatively unspecialized, longitudinally dehiscent anthers. I. altissima seems most like I. rigida, also a tall plant, up to 600 mm high, which has flowers with a similarly funnel-shaped perianth tube 2–3 mm long and silvery translucent floral bracts. This contrasts with the slightly longer perianth tube, ± 4 mm long, and shorter anthers just 3 mm long in I. altissima, which is also unusual in the section in having the style dividing opposite the middle of the anthers.