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(Last Modified On 10/28/2012)
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(Last Modified On 10/28/2012)
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Species
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SISYRINCHIUM CONVOLUTUM Nocca
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PlaceOfPublication
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Pl. Select. Hort. Ticin. sub. t. I. 1800.
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Synonym
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Sisyrinchium alatum Hook. and S. iridifolium HBK. of many authors.
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Description
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Plants with the habit of a miniature Iris, greatly discoloring in drying; roots partly slender and fibrous and partly short and tuberous; leaves narrowly ensi- form, 7-25 cm. long, 0.4-0.6 cm. broad, characteristically turgid and patulous, both basal and cauline; flowering stems branching once or repeatedly, more or less flexuose, rather inconspicuously ancipitous, 1-3 dm. tall, surrounded at the base with rather inconspicuous fibers of. past leaves; inflorescence simple, few-flowered; spathe valves about equal, ovate-lanceolate, the outer 2.0-2.5 cm. long; perianth yellow veined with brown, rather narrow, 0.8-1.0 cm. long, glabrous; stamen filaments 0.4-0.6 cm. long, connate to somewhat below the middle; capsules oblongoid-subglobose, about 1 cm. long; seeds about 0.1 cm. in diameter, lustrous and conspicuously reticulate-foveolate.
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Distribution
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Southern Mexico to Peru, in highland llanos.
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Specimen
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CHIRIQUI: Boquete, Davidson 788; Chiriqui Viejo valley, G. White 98; Llanos del Volcain, Seibert 346.
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Note
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In the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden are three sheets from the collection of Bernhardi, which bear his notation "Sisyrinchium convolutum Nocca." While these specimens scarcely have the authenticity of actual types or isotypes, yet they represent probably plants grown by Bernhardi in his well-stocked garden at Erfurt and may rather confidently be taken as illustrative of the appli- cation of the specific name during the middle part of the past century. Bernhardi corresponded very actively with other botanists of his period and exchanged both dried specimens and seeds, such acquisitions of his now forming a little-recognized treasure of botanical antiquities in the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden not duplicated elsewhere in America. Our plants check so well with "Sisyrinchium convolutum" of Bernhardi's collection, and so adequately with published descriptions and icones that our disposition has considerable claim to accuracy. Whatever they may be, they cer- tainly are not S. alatum Hook. (properly S. Marchio Vell.) nor S. iridifolium HBK., as a thoughtful examination of standard references will show. The latter species is not actually a member of the yellow-flowered S. alatum alliance, as it is treated usually, but of the angustifolium-chilense complex closely related to S. micranthum. Its flowers are not actually yellow, but blue-striped, at least with a yellowish base as in S. micranthum. The confusion of S. convolutum with S. alatum apparently is due, at least in part, to the rather hasty efforts of Baker, who determined a widely distributed specimen from Guatemala (Heyde & Lux 3533) as the latter species, with the possible intention for his S. alaturn var. guatemalense (Handb. Irid. 130. 1892), probably referable to S. convolutum. True S. alatum of South America is a very different, much larger plant with crowded, short and incurved leaves, smaller nearly globose capsules, and slender, fibrous roots. S. convolutum apparently is a rather frequent species extending from Hidalgo and Jalisco, in Mexico, possibly as far south as Ecuador. We have made no effort to disentangle a full selection of synonyms for S. convolutum, in view of the taxonomic confusion of the genus.
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