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Published In: Nordic Journal of Botany 3: 441. 1983. (Nordic J. Bot.) Name publication detail
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 6/6/2016)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 9/13/2016)
Description: Plants 80–160 mm high. Corm ovoid, symmetric, truncate below, 6–9 mm diam.; tunics blackish, imbricate, notched below into regular sections. Stem erect, flexed above sheath of upper leaf and at base of spike, simple or 1-branched. Leaves 3, lower 2 basal, uppermost inserted on lower part of stem, slightly longer or shorter than stem, linear, 0.5–1.5 mm wide, margins and main vein slightly thickened, thus narrowly 2-grooved on each surface, uppermost leaf with large, inflated, multi-ribbed sheath. Spike inclined, flexuose, 2–4(–6)-flowered; bracts green, 8–13(–16) mm long, inner shorter than outer. Flowers zygomorphic with stamens unilateral and declinate, tepals widely cupped, deep blue with glossy red centre edged with narrow white band, each tepal with a dark pit in midline; perianth tube funnel-shaped, usually exceeding bracts, 6–8 mm long; tepals obovate, 15–22 × 12–15 mm. Filaments unilateral, declinate, equal, ± 10 mm long, held above lowermost tepal, curving upward distally; anthers erect, ± parallel, 5–6 mm long, dark purple; pollen red-brown. Style arching beneath stamens, ± 2 mm long, branches 4 mm long. Flowering time: September to early October.
Country: South Africa
South African Province: Western Cape
Distribution and ecology: restricted to low hills and flats in the western coastal belt of Western Cape, extending from Yzerfontein and Darling south to Paarl and in the past to Somerset West; in seasonally damp sites in gravelly sand, often of decomposed granite.
Diagnosis: one of the most striking species in the genus, Geissorhiza radians is immediately recognized by the large flowers wit h deeply cupped tepals, deep blue with red in the lower third edged with a narrow white band and each with a dark pit-like depression in the middle. The leaves are linear (sometimes almost terete) with thickened margins and main vein. The flowers are also zygomorphic, the stamens unilateral and declinate and the style lying beneath them, above the lowermost tepals. G. eurystigma and G. mathwesii have similarly coloured flowers but lack the pitted tepal markings, and have unusual, broad style branches and have broader, ribbed leaves. Subject to a complex taxonomic history, G. radians was known for many years as G. rochensis, that name unfortunately illegitimate.

 
 


 

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