Tropicos | Name - Aristea pauciflora Wolley-Dod

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Aristea > Aristea pauciflora

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Aristea pauciflora Wolley-Dod

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

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 6/7/2016)

Description: Plants 200–400 mm high, forming tufts. Stem elliptic in section, 2-angled to narrowly winged, usually unbranched with sessile lateral flower clusters. Leaves linear, leathery, mostly 2–4 mm wide, oval in cross section with rounded edges, without defined margins. Flower clusters 2–4, each (2–)3–4-flowered; spathes greenish becoming dry and blackish above, 15–20 mm long, bracts dry, shorter than spathes. Flowers deep blue, upright; tepals subequal, 15–22 × 8--10 mm, outer slightly shorter than inner. Filaments ± 3.5 mm long; anthers 3–4 mm long. Ovary cylindric-3-lobed; tyle ± 9 mm long; stigma lobes broad, fringed. Capsules elongate, 3-lobed, lobes acutely angled, woody, indehiscent, (20–)25–35 mm long. Seeds triangular-columnar, many per locule in a single row, surface smooth. Flowering time: October to December.

Country: South Africa

South African Province: Western Cape

Distribution and ecology: a rare local endemic of the Cape Peninsula, Western Cape; mainly on granite-derived slopes.

Diagnosis: although the small, deep blue flowers of Aristea seem unremarkable for the genus, the elongate, three-angled ovary and long, indehiscent capsules place A. pauciflora squarely in subg. Pseudaristea. The pollen confirms this assignment for the grains have two circular apertures, thus dizonasulculate as in other members of the subgenus. The relatively small flowers with subequal tepals 15–22 mm long closely resemble those of most species of Aristea and the short anthers 3–4 mm long, reinforce this impression; other species of the section often have longer anthers, mostly 4.5–6 mm long. The leaves of A. pauciflora are unique in the section in having rounded margins and they lack the typical marginal anatomy of translucent, thickened marginal epidermal cells. In other members of subg. Pseudaristea the margins have acute edges that become hyaline when dry. A. pauciflora is most easily confused with A. simplex, which has either pale or sometimes deep blue flowers of similar proportions but half to fully nodding, and the leaves are plane, with acute margins.