Tropicos | Name - !Ixia polystachya L.

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Ixia > Ixia polystachya

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!Ixia polystachya L.

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

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 9/1/2016)

Description : Plants mostly 300–500 mm high. Corm 9–20 mm diam.; tunics of fine, netted fibres. Stem usually 2- or 3-branched, sometimes simple. Leaves 5–8, reaching to ± middle of stem or base of spike, narrowly sword-shaped to linear, mostly 3–8 mm wide, upper leaves partly sheathing, free distally. Spike mostly 8–12-flowered, slightly flexuose; bracts pale, ± translucent, flushed pink to brown near tips, outer 4–7(–9) mm long, with a single prominent median vein, apex subacute, 1-toothed or unequally 3-lobed with longer central tooth, inner 2-veined, 2-toothed. Flowers rotate to ± salver-shaped, suberect, pink, blue-mauve, blue-grey or purple with small dark blue, purple, black or grey centre, often faintly scented; perianth tube 6.5–11.0 mm long; tepals ± elliptic, subequal, 9–18 × 4–8 mm. Filaments 2–4 mm long; blue mauve to purple; anthers 4–7 mm long, spreading or suberect, pale mauve to ± white; pollen white or pale yellow. Style pale mauve, purple or white, usually dividing opposite base of filaments or opposite middle to apex of filaments, branches 3–4 mm long. Flowering time: late October to early December.

Country : South Africa

South African Province : Western Cape

Distribution and ecology : restricted to the western half of Western Cape, extending from the Olifants River Mtns near Warm Baths to the Cape Peninsula and Cape Hangklip; on middle to lower slopes and flats, often in cooler, sites as at the edge of bush but also in renosterveld in the Swartland, on clay loam or sandy ground.

Diagnosis : Ixia polystachya is recognized by moderate-sized flowers crowded together at the top of the spike, and a stem typically with two or three short, ascending branches. Flowers range from white to pink or blue-mauve with a relatively small darker blue, purple or grey centre and have tepals 9–18 mm long and a perianth tube 6.5–11.0 and half as long as the tepals. Added to this, the floral bracts are usually pale-translucent and the outer has a prominent central vein and an acute central cusp, sometimes with a pair of small lateral lobes. The style tupically divides at the mouth of the perianth tube with the style branches extending between the bases of the filaments. Plants also usually have dark anthers and as the flower ages spread outward to become almost horizontal and slightly twisted. The specific epithet, polystachya (many-branched), is misleading for although stems sometimes have one, two or even three branches (as in the type illustration), this character is not consistent and plants are sometimes unbranched.

General Notes : curiously, plants sometimes have an unusually long style dividing shortly below to shortly above the base of the anthers. Such plants are most common on the Cape Peninsula but also occur in populations from the Olifants River Mtns. The short-styled plants are most frequent at lower elevations between Cape Town and Tulbagh. Style length may even vary within some populations. Plants referred in the past to var. lutea are now regarded as a separate species, I. sarmentosa, flowers of which have pale yellow to pink or white flowers with a large central stain and corms usually bearing stolons (not present in I. polystachya). A second variety, var. crassifolia, said to have leathery leaves, slightly smaller flowers and leaf margins somewhat thickened, is not currently recognized. I. polystachya var. longistylis (De Vos 1999) from the mid Breede River Valley near Rawsonville was distinguished by particularly narrow, prominently veined and fibrotic leaves 2.0–2.5 mm wide and a style dividing opposite the middle of the anthers. This plant is now I. longistylis and is probably not closely related to I. polystachya.