Tropicos | Name - !Ixia latifolia D. Delaroche

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Ixia > Ixia latifolia

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!Ixia latifolia D. Delaroche

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

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 9/3/2016)

Description : Plants mostly 150–350 mm high. Corm subglobose, mostly 15–25 mm diam.; tunics of firm, often coarsely wiry, netted fibres, bearing small cormlets at base. Stem usually 1–3-branched, rarely simple; branches either ascending, fairly long and straight or shorter and ± twisted, subtended by obscure, obtuse bracts and prophylls ± 1 mm long. Leaves usually 3, lower 2 lanceolate to sword-shaped, oblong or falcate, (5–)10–18 mm wide, ± 1/3 as long as stem, margins moderately to strongly thickened, sometimes slightly crisped, uppermost leaf sheathing lower 1/2 to 2/3 of stem.Main spike mostly 3–7-flowered, lateral spikes (1–)3–6-flowered, either ± straight or twisted; bracts translucent sometimes tinged brown, especially in fruit, outer with 3 dark veins, mostly 7–11 mm long, acutely 3-toothed, inner ± as long or slightly longer, with 2 dark veins, 2-toothed at apex. Flowers nodding, deep pink, pale mauve or blue-mauve, white or yellow in throat, sometimes edged darker pink or purple, unscented or with a faint rose or sour odour; perianth tube (7–)10–18(–23) mm long,narrowly funnel-shaped, flaring in upper 1/3, slightly curved near base; tepals subequal, ovate, 13–20(–23) × (6–)7–10 mm, spreading. Filaments 8–12 long, exserted 6–8 mm; anthers 3–5 mm long before splitting. Style dividing between base and middle of anthers, branches 1.8–3.0 mm long, extending between anthers. Flowering time: mainly mid-September to mid-October.

Country : South Africa

South African Province : Western Cape

Distribution and ecology : extending in Western Cape from the Cold Bokkeveld and Worcester eastward to Karoo Poort at the edge of the Tanqua Karoo and southeast through the Witteberg Karoo and northern foothills of the Klein Swartberg with isolated populations in the Little Karoo as far east as the Gamkaberg; on clay, clay loam and sandy soils in renosterveld, or occasionally dry fynbos, fairly common at higher elevations in the interior southwestern part of Western Cape.

Diagnosis : Ixia latifolia is recognized by the relatively large, deep pink, purple, mauve-pink or blue-mauve flower usually with a relatively well-developed perianth tube,(7–)10–18(–23) mm long that gradually widens toward the mouth, and spreading tepals 13–20(–23) long. The long stamens have filaments exserted 6–8 mm from the tube and anthers 3–5 mm long. The floral bracts are mostly 8–10 mm long and distinctive in having narrowly acute teeth. The two basal leaves are usually fairly broad, 10–18 mm, but occasionally only 5 mm wide. The third leaf sheaths the stem for its entire length. Plants with short, somewhat twisted, rather than straight, lateral branches and slightly smaller flowers, described by G.J. Lewis as var. curviramosa, are now included in I. latifolia. The degree of twisting and length of the branches is not consistently correlated with any other character, and is often difficult to determine because plants with shorter, ± straight branches, conform to neither taxon. Flower sizeis unusually variable. Both the northernmost populations of I. latifolia in the arid Tanqua Basin and the easternmost near Oudtshoorn are exceptional: the Tanqua populations, growing in perhaps the most arid habitat for the species, have the largest flowers with a tube 20–23 mm long and tepals up to 21 × 10.5 mm. In contrast, the Gamkaberg populations have flowers with a tube 7–8 mm long and tepals 13–15 × ± 7 mm, among the smallest in the species. But plants from several other localities have flowers almost as small. The plants from the Tanqua Karoo reverse the usual trend for smaller stature and flower size in the driest habitats and merit further study.

General Notes : Ixia latifolia is probably most closely related to I. divaricata, a plant of wet, sandstone habitats in the Cold Bokkeveld and surrounding mountains, which has long, slender, straight lateral branches with flowers crowded in the upper half and a smaller perianth with a tube 8–11 mm long, tepals 11–14 mm long, and filaments 4–5 mm long reaching 1–2 mm beyond the mouth of the perianth tube or sometimes only to the mouth of the tube. Ixia divaricata typically has pale pink or white flowers and narrow leaves, thus very different from the larger, deep pink mauve or purple flowers with well-exserted filaments, and broad, fairly short leaves of I. latifolia. Plants with broader leaves may be the result of crossing with I. latifolia, and plants of that species with particularly long branches may be the result of occasional crosses with I. divaricata at sites where the habitats of the two are close together.