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!Tritonia watermeyeri L. Bolus 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: Annals of the Bolus Herbarium 4: 44. 1926. (Ann. Bolus Herb.) Name publication detail
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 6/6/2016)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 10/13/2016)
Description: Plants (50–)60–150(–200) mm high. Corm conical-globose, 7–15 mm diam.; tunics of moderately fine-textured or wiry fibres forming flattened claws at base, extending in a papery or fibrous neck. Stem ± strongly deflexed above uppermost sheath, usually unbranched, rarely with 1 branch from near base. Leaves 4–8, linear-lanceolate, suberect or trailing, usually ± as long as stem, blade 50–100 × 1.5–4(–5) mm wide, acute to acuminate, loosely or tightly spirally twisted, margins plane or closely undulate or crisped, main vein moderately thickened, margins slightly thickened, cauline leaf membranous, bract-like, sheathing, concealed by uppermost foliage leaf. Spike inclined, moderately lax, 2–6-flowered; bracts dry-membranous, translucent flushed brown and speckled in upper 1/2, outer 6–9 mm long, minutely 3-toothed or irregularly toothed, inner ± as long, shortly bifid. Flowers zygomorphic, orange to reddish-orange with yellow throat and yellow spot on lower tepals surrounding callus; perianth tube obliquely funnel-shaped, 10–16 mm long, lower cylindric portion 3–7 mm long, widening to ± 8 mm diam.; tepals obovate, dorsal larger and slightly hooded over anthers, often paler inside, upper laterals spreading and lower tepals deflexed, upper tepals 15–10(–22) × (7–)8–12(–15) mm, lower tepals 11–14 × 5–9 mm, each with a quadrate or truncate yellow callus 3–4 mm high. near base. Filaments unilateral, arcuate, 12–18 mm long, exserted up to 6 mm; anthers 4–5 mm long, often curved, exserted, violet. Style dividing opposite base to middle of anthers, branches 3–4 mm long. Capsules obovoid, ± 10 mm long. Flowering time: August to October.
Country: South Africa
South African Province: Western Cape
Distribution and ecology: a local endemic of the western Little Karoo in Western Cape, from Montagu and Barrydale to Anysberg; on stony clay flats and banks in renosterveld and karroid shrubland.
Diagnosis: a small plant with relatively large flowers, Tritonia watermeyeri is distinguished from T. securigera by the narrow, more or less spirally twisted leaves, 1.5–4(–5) mm wide, with the margins often tightly undulate or crisped. The corm tunics are always wiry with the fibres thickened at the base into flattened claws. T. watermeyeri occurs west and northwest of the range of T. securigera. Populations between Montagu and Barrydale are readily recognised by their tightly twisted and crisped leaves but populations from the Anysberg are less distinctive, with plane, only loosely twisted leaves. These plants can scarcely be separated from narrow-leaved forms of T. securigera and the taxon was treated as a subspecies by us (Goldblatt & Manning, 1996). It is, however, no less distinct from typical T. securigera than is T. parvula. The status of these taxa in relation to T. securigera remains unclear but we treat them here as separate species.

 


 

Specimens whose coordinates are enclosed in square brackets [ ] have been mapped to a standard reference mark based on political units.
 
 
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