Tropicos | Name - Micranthus simplex Goldblatt & J.C. Manning

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Micranthus > Micranthus simplex

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Micranthus simplex Goldblatt & J.C. Manning

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

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 6/13/2016)

Description: Plants (100–)140–200 mm high, base sheathed by short collar of brittle fibres. Corm tunics of dark brown, reticulate fibres. Stem usually simple, rarely 1-branched. Leaves (2)3, plane, linear or falcate, ± 1 mm wide, usually with 1 or 2 prominent veins, margins thickened, hyaline when dry. Spike 16- to 40-flowered; bracts purple-brown with broad translucent, brown-flecked membranous margins, ± 5 mm long, inner bracts ± as long as outer, membranous with 2 dark keels, notched at apex. Flowers white fading to lilac, outer tepals tipped pale lilac, with subapical brown ridge on reverse; perianth tube ± 3 mm long; tepals oblong, ± 4 × 1.2 mm. Stamens with filaments ± 2.5 mm long; anthers oblong, ± 2.5 mm long. Style ± 7 mm long, dividing opposite middle of anthers; branches ± 1 mm long, barely notched at apex. Capsules oblong, slightly warty in distal half, ± 4 mm long. Seeds elongate-angular, ± 3 mm long. Flowering time: December to at least mid-January.

Country: South Africa

South African Province: Western Cape

Distribution and ecology: known only from the slopes of Zebrakop, highest peak in the Piketberg, Micranthus simplex, like M. cruciatus, grows in shallow soils in moss or in rock crevices on wet sandstone rocks. The habitat remains moist as late as January when the species blooms.

Diagnosis: unusually small for the genus, stems of Micranthus simplex rarely exceed 180 mm and the white flowers with lilac-tipped outer tepals are distinctive, other species having flowers in shades of deep to pale blue or blue-mauve, or occasionally white. The inflorescence has the appearance of being relatively lax, the bracts of the lower flowers of the spike not overlapping those above them, but the upper bracts are as closely set as in other species. It is one of two species of Micranthus with consistently plane leaves; the other, M. alopecuroides, is a taller plant with congested spikes of 40 to 80 flowers and broader leaves mostly 5–12 mm wide. The flowers of M. simplex are the smallest in the genus, the perianth tube just 3 mm long and the short anthers ± 2.5 mm long. The short, undivided style branches, ± 1 long, are likewise unusual for Micranthus, other species of which normally have the style branches somewhat to considerably longer and divided for at least one third their length.