Tropicos | Name - !Babiana unguiculata G.J. Lewis

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Babiana > Babiana unguiculata

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!Babiana unguiculata G.J. Lewis

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

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 11/3/2016)

Description: Plants 100–200 mm high. Stem erect, sometimes with 1–2 short branches in upper `/3, velvety, enclosed below by thick collar of fibres. Leaves sublinear to sword-shaped, reaching to ± middle of spike, 4–7 mm wide, sometimes lightly twisted, strongly pleated, usually shortly hairy (in cultivation smooth except for a line of long hairs on adaxial margins). Spike suberect, 4–12-flowered; bracts green, dark brown at tips, softly hairy, 7–15 mm long, inner slightly shorter or longer than outer, forked mostly to base (rarely for half their length with membranous midline). Flowers zygomorphic, pale creamy yellow, lower lateral tepals deep yellow; perianth tube 10–12 mm long; tepals unequal, dorsal ± 25 mm long, arching over stamens, later erect, lower tepals joined to upper laterals for ± 5 mm and to one another for 3–4 mm in a prominent lip, lower laterals with narrow claws ± 2 mm long, abruptly widening into broad limbs ± 15 × 7 mm. Stamens unilateral; filaments arched, 12–15 mm long; anthers 5–6 mm long, yellow; pollen white. Ovary lightly hairy, mostly on ribs; style dividing between middle and apex of anthers, branches 3–4 mm long. Flowering time: August to mid September.

Country: South Africa

South African Province: Northern Cape, Western Cape

Distribution and ecology: extending from the Bokkeveld–Stinkfontein Mtn complex south of Nieuwoudtville in Northern Cape south to the Nardouw Mtns in Western Cape (but poorly documented and known from just two sites); in seeps and locally wet sandstone pavement.

Diagnosis: yellow-flowered Babiana unguiculata was placed when first described in sect Antholyzoides (as sect. Exohebeoides) by G.J. Lewis (1959), largely because of the supposed recurving of the dorsal tepal in the later stages of anthesis. However, it stood out in the section in having an ovary hairy above the base or on the ribs, the ovary otherwise smooth in the section. Examination of living plants from its two known populations shows two more features inconsistent its sectional placement. These are the dorsal tepal, which is not recurved but suberect in late anthesis, and the inner bracts are forked almost to the base (and basally linked by transparent membranous tissue) and not, as noted by Lewis, forked only in the upper third or half. The fairly small flowers and the hairy ovary of B. unguiculata are consistent with sect. Babiana as is the inner bract divided to the base or almost so. In the type collection the narrow leaf blades are tightly pleated, appearing to be ribbed, but plants examined later have softer-textured leaves, only moderately pleated, densely short-hairy but long hairy along the adaxial margins. The general appearance of the flowers and the short floral bracts recall B. auriculata and B. lineolata in particular but both have blue rather than pale yellow flowers. Flowers of B. unguiculata lack the auricular lobes on the lower tepal limbs so characteristic of B. auriculata.