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Published In: Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 20(3): 273. 1932. (Trans. Roy. Soc. South Africa) Name publication detail
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 6/6/2016)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 11/16/2016)
Description: Plants 400–650 mm high. Corm depressed-globose, 30–45 mm diam.; tunics papery to fibrous. Stem unbranched. Leaves several in a basal fan, sword-shaped, medium-textured, with prominent main vein, mostly 12–20 mm wide. Spike arching outward to almost horizontal, 10–16-flowered, flowers borne on upper side of axis; bracts green or flushed red on margins or entirely, 8–12(–15) mm long, inner minutely forked at tip. Flowers facing to side or toward base of spike, bright orange to scarlet, tube often yellowish on underside, unscented; perianth tube trumpet-shaped, slender below for 5–)7–10(–15) mm, twisted through 360°, abruptly expanded into a wide, cylindric upper part 16–25 mm long, lightly 3-pouched at base, arching outward; tepals unequal, dorsal largest, (22–)25–35 × 7–10 mm, spathulate, spooned distally, upper and lower lateral tepals mostly 10–15 mm long, spreading or half-reflexed, lowermost smallest, directed ± forward. Filaments arching under dorsal tepal, 40–50 mm long, median one 3–4 mm longer; anthers 5–7 mm long, median reaching ± to apex of dorsal tepal, light purple; pollen purple. Style horizontal, dividing opposite upper 1/3 of anthers, often ultimately exceeding them, branches 4–5 mm long. Capsules ovoid to barrel-shaped, 3-lobed, smooth, dark red to purple-black inside on opening. Seeds up to 3 per locule, more often 1 or 2 (3–9 per capsule), globose, initially 6–7 mm diam., bright orange, coat fleshy and smooth, becoming wrinkled on drying and 5–6 mm diam. Chromosome number 2n = 20. Flowering time: mid-autumn to early winter (April–June), sometimes as late as July.
Country: South Africa
South African Province: Eastern Cape, Western Cape
Distribution and ecology: mainly in the winter-rainfall zone of southern Africa, extending from Darling, north of Cape Town in Western Cape, along the southern coast to Kei Mouth and Kentani in Eastern Cape; in coastal bush and along forest margins in a variety of soils.
Diagnosis: Chasmanthe aethiopica is readily recognized by its comparatively short stature, the spike seldom reaching more than 500 mm in height, unbranched flowering stem and inclined to almost horizontal spike. In addition, the 10–16 flowers are borne in a single congested row on the upper side of the spike axis. The flowers are distinctive in the perianth tube being abruptly expanded above the narrow cylindric lower part, the wider upper part of the tube is lightly expanded into three pouches, and the lower part of the tube is twisted through 360°. Although all Chasmanthe species have orange seeds, only those of C. aethiopica have a fleshy coat when first exposed after the capsule walls split. The seed coat later becomes dry and wrinkled. The inside of the capsules is often flushed reddish to purple. Thus both vegetatively and in flower and fruit C. aethiopica stands apart in the genus. The confused taxonomic history of C. aethiopica and closely related C. floribunda is detailed by Goldblatt et al. (2004).
Pollination: the long-tubed flowers are adapted for pollination by sunbirds, of which the lesser double-collared sunbird, Nectarinia afra, is the most frequently recorded visitor. The malachite sunbird is also recorded as a visitor to the flowers.

 


 

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