Tropicos | Name - !Watsonia pillansii L. Bolus

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Watsonia > Watsonia pillansii

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!Watsonia pillansii L. Bolus

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

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 8/8/2016)

Description: Plants 500–1 200 mm high, often forming clumps. Corm depressed-globose, 30–50 mm diam.; tunics coarsely netted. Stem usually simple, or with 1 to 3 branches. Leaves 4 to 6, lower 3 or 4 basal, uppermost partly or entirely sheathing stem, ± half as long as spike, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, (7–)12–18 mm wide, midrib and margins moderately thickened and hyaline; bract-like cauline leaves several, sheathing. Spike (20)25 to 35-flowered; bracts green or often partly reddish, dry and brown apically, (19–)23–33(–40) mm long, inner 2/3 to ± as long, greenish and completely enclosed, obtuse to barely bilobed. Flowers zygomorphic, bright orange to orange-red; perianth tube with lower part 17–25 mm long, included or shortly emerging from bracts, upper part ascending to horizontal, sub-cylindric, 18–25 mm long, ± 6 mm diam. at mouth, usually with longitudinal ridges between filament bases; tepals lanceolate, 20–26 × 9–15 mm, all widely spreading or dorsal somewhat hooded. Filaments unilateral, arcuate, 30–40 mm long, well exserted from tube; anthers 7–11 mm long, violet to cream. Style dividing near middle of anthers, branches ± 7 mm long. Capsules globose to narrowly obovoid, 10–12 mm long. Seeds elongate, 7–10 mm long, shortly 2-winged. Flowering time: (November) December to January (February).

Country: South Africa

South African Province: Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape

Distribution and ecology: widespread along the southern and eastern seaboard, from the Langeberg at Swellendam in Western Cape along the Outeniqua and Tsitisikamma Mtns through the Eastern Cape to Dundee in KwaZulu-Natal, extending inland along the foothills of the Drakensberg, on stony slopes in rock outcrops in grassland.

Diagnosis: distinguished by the long-tubed, orange flowers with the lower and upper parts of the perianth tube 17–25 mm long, the filaments 30–40 mm long, and the mostly herbaceous bracts (19–)22–35(–40) mm long. The perianth tube is usually bears internal longitudinal ridges between the lower part of the filaments. Populations from the Hogsback–Katberg mountains represent a distinct race of tall plants with up to 35 flowers per spike, and unusually short inner bracts ± half as long or less than the outer. Watsonia knysnana has mostly pink to purple (rarely red) flowers with the lower part of the perianth tube 12–20 mm long, the filaments thus 16–28 mm long, and bracts (12–)14–20(–24) mm long. The two species hybridise extensively along the southern Cape coast, notably near Prince Alfred’s Pass and Kareedouw Pass but also elsewhere.

Watsonia schlechteri from further west and inland has similar bracts and flowers but lacking the ridges inside the perianth tube and mostly narrower leaves 6–15 mm wide with heavily thickened midrib and margins. The two species converge in the Langeberg between Cloeets’s Pass and Riversdale, and plants from this area are difficult to identify with confidence.