Published In:
Strelitzia 35: 89. 2015. ( Strelitzia) 
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(Last Modified On 6/16/2016)
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Acceptance
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Accepted
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(Last Modified On 6/16/2016)
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Description:
Plants short and compact to fairly slender, seldom exceeding 100 mm, simple or with up to 3 branches from near base, stem terete. Corm ± 8 mm diam., broadly obconic, tunics dark brown to black, rugose, split longitudinally at base and apex. Leaves usually 2, lowermost basal, longest, falcate, ± plane with main vein slightly raised, ± leathery, mostly 5–8 mm wide; upper leaf much shorter. Inflorescence a spike, with up to 12 flowers in 2 ranks; bracts green with red margins, outer ± 6 mm long, inner 4–5 mm long. Flowers zygomorphic, pale pink to nearly white, lower 3 tepals each with dark pink to mauve or red spot in lower midline, unscented; perianth tube ± cylindric, 12–17 mm long, slightly wider in upper 3–4 mm; tepals ovate-oblong 7–8 × ± 3 mm. Filaments unilateral, ± erect, ± 6 mm long, exserted ± 3 mm; anthers ±1.2 mm long, white, pollen white. Style erect, dividing shortly below apex of filaments, branches ± 2.3 mm long, deeply divided, spreading between anthers. Capsules top-shaped and 3-angled, 4–5 mm long. Seeds ovoid-orbicular, flattened at chalazal end, brown, ± 0.6–0.9 × 0.5 mm, reticulate, funicular collar up to 0.3 mm long. Chromosome number 2n = 20. Flowering time: mainly September and October at lower elevations but as late as mid December at high elevations.
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South African Province:
Western Cape
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Distribution and ecology:
restricted to the mountains of interior Western Cape, extending from Matroosberg and Lakenvlei, east of Ceres, through the Agterwitsenberg Vlakte and Cold Bokkeveld to Elandskloof, south of Citrusdal; on sandstone substrates and often in crevices in rock outcrops or in seeps on sandstone pavement, mostly at middle elevations between 800 and 1 200 m but on Matroosberg at 2 200 m.
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Diagnosis:
both morphology, especially the corms, and molecular data confirm the relationship of Codonorhiza falcata to the C. corymbosa complex. In the DNA-based phylogeny (Figure 1) C. falcata is consistently retrieved as sister to the remaining species of the genus. Unlike all other Codonorhiza species, the inflorescence is a spike rather than a flat-topped false panicle, and we infer that a spike is the ancestral condition for the genus on the basis of outgroup comparison since all genera except Pillansia of the sister clade have spicate inflorescences. The blackish, rough-textured corm tunics, plane, falcate leaf and green floral bracts with red margins accord exactly with the C. corymbosa complex, as do the small, ± ovoid seeds with reticulate sculpturing and prominent funicular collar. The flowers are pale pink to ± white with dark pink to mauve or red markings on the lower tepals, colours that are unique in the genus. C. falcata is one of only three species with a cylindrical perianth tube, but the other two, L. micrantha and L. pillansii are immediately distinguished by their flat-topped inflorescences and flowers of different colour.
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General Notes:
described by the younger Linnaeus in 1782, as Gladiolus falcatus, the species was based largely, if not entirely, on a Thunberg collection and probably in part on Thunberg’s manuscript notes. Early confusion with Freesia verrucosa and its illegitimate synonym, Anomatheca juncea, which is superficially similar to Codonorhiza falcata, was the result of their flowers of similar size and proportions but they differ in almost all vegetative features. Linnaeus fil. confused them and a specimen of F. verrucosa in the Linnean Herbarium annotated by him has a query mark against the name Gladiolus falcatus. Thunberg’s (1784) more detailed account in the Dissertatio de Gladiolo clearly applies only to his collection (Goldblatt 1972). G. falcatus was transferred to Lapeirousia by Ker Gawler (1804). Later in the 19th century the name L. falcata was abandoned in favour of the later synonym, L. pappei (Baker 1892).
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Specimens whose coordinates are enclosed in square brackets [ ] have been mapped to a standard reference mark based on political
units.
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Africa & Madagascar
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South Africa
Western Cape:
12 October 2000,
Peter Goldblatt 11630
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South Africa
Western Cape:
715 m,
32°56'55"S 019°11'48"E,
17 October 2012,
Peter Goldblatt & John C. Manning 13893
(NBG)
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South Africa
Western Cape:
715 m,
32°56'55"S 019°11'48"E,
17 October 2012,
Peter Goldblatt & John C. Manning 13893
(MO)
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South Africa
Cape:
22 September 1991,
Peter Goldblatt & John C. Manning 9478
(MO)
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South Africa
Cape:
20 September 1993,
Peter Goldblatt & John C. Manning 9742
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South Africa
Western Cape:
20 September 2001,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 11918
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South Africa
Western Cape:
29 September 2009,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 13464
(MO)
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