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Published In: Botanical Magazine 15: , t. 533. 1801. (Bot. Mag.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 6/6/2016)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 7/29/2016)
Description: Plants 250–600 mm high. Corm sub-globose, 20–30 mm diam.; tunics coarsely netted. Stem erect, simple or with 1 or 2 short, ascending branches. Leaves 4 to 6, mostly ± basal with uppermost partly or entirely sheathing stem below, 1/2–2/3 as long as spike, lanceolate to linear, (3–)5–10 mm wide, glossy, midrib and margins lightly to moderately thickened and hyaline; bract-like cauline leaves 1 or more. Spike usually 8 to 20-flowered; bracts usually overlapping, broadly clasping below, green below but dry at pale brown distally with evident netted venation, becoming dry throughout and lacerate, 11–24 mm long, inner ± as long, minutely forked apically. Flowers zygomorphic, usuallypendent, reddish or orange, occasionally purple or pink, inner tepals usually paler or whitish; perianth tube with lower part 12–15 long, emerging 5–8 mm from bracts, upper part sub-cylindric and slightly to strongly pendent, 25–28 mm long, 5–8 mm diam. in middle; tepals weakly spreading distally, obovate to oblanceolate, ± 10 × 7–9 mm. Filaments unilateral and declinate, 30–35 mm long, shortly exserted from tube but included in flower; anthers 4–5 mm long, yellow. Style arching below stamens, dividing near base of anthers, branches ± 4 mm long. Capsules fusiform-attenuate, 15–25(–30) × 4–8 mm long, dehiscing only above, rarely aborted and replaced by cormlets. Seeds linear, 6–8 × 1.0–1.5 mm, shortly 2-winged. Flowering time: late August to October (early November).
Country: South Africa
South African Province: Western Cape
Distribution and ecology: widespread along the southern coastal plain of Western Cape, from Bot River to Knysna, on clay soils in renosterveld.
Diagnosis: a relatively short species distinguished by its ±pendent, tubular reddish or purple flowers with short, barely spreading tepals ± 10 mm long and less than half as long as the upper part of the perianth tube, and declinate filaments with short, yellow anthers 4–5 mm long. The broad-based bracts, pale and dry above with netted venation, and the fusiform capsules are also distinctive and are shared with Watsonia laccata, which has funnel-shaped flowers with the tepals ± as long as or than the upper part of the perianth tube, and shorter filaments up to 20 mm long. The two species hybridise in the wild, producing a range of fertile intermediates (Goldblatt, 1989).
General Notes: unusual populations in the Bredasdorp district with pale pink flowers develop cormlets in the axils of the lower floral bracts in place of the buds or capsules, which abort after flowering. One of these populations has been established to be triploid (Goldblatt, 1989).

 
 


 

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