Published In:
Species Plantarum 1: 54. 1753. (1 May 1753) ( Sp. Pl.)   
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(Last Modified On 6/6/2016)
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Acceptance
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Accepted
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(Last Modified On 6/10/2016)
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Description:
Evergreen, mostly tufted perennials with creeping or erect rhizomes, often compact and corm-like. Flowering stem aerial, terete or flattened, usually with basal internode greatly elongated, laxly paniculately branched with sticky internodes in two species, smooth or minutely striate-furrowed. Leaves several, mostly basal, linear in 2-ranks or terete and usually resembling flowering stem, smooth or minutely striate-grooved, sometimes long and trailing, uppermost cauline leaf (spathe) subtending inflorescence, either green and leaf-like or dry and fibrous; margins when leaves plane with submarginal sclerenchyma without marginal vein. Individual inflorescences few- to several-flowered rhipidia, each solitary or usually few to many crowded in a tight cluster subtended by a prominent bract, usually with several additional overlapping bracts; rhipidial spathes green and leathery; pedicels ± hairy distally. Flowers actinomorphic, fugaceous, stellate or rotate, usually yellow, rarely deep blue (blue-mauve), unscented; with traces of nectar from septal nectaries; tepals free or rarely united in a short tube, subequal, spreading, without obvious claws. Stamens free, suberect; filaments slender; anthers yellow. Ovary excluded or included in rhipidial spathes, obovoid to top-shaped, smooth or tuberculate; style short, dividing into 3 filiform branches extending between filaments, stigmatic apically.Capsules ovoid-truncate, woody, with septa separating from central axis. Seeds numerous, angular. Pollen grains monosulcate, exine reticulate. Basic chromosome number x = 10.
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Etymology:
named for Jakob Bobart (1641–1719), German botanist and first curator of the botanic garden at Oxford, England.
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General Notes:
Species 17, South Africa, in Western Cape and Eastern Cape, mainly on sandstone slopes or sandy flats in fynbos.
The genus comprises evergreen, often tufted, rhizomatous perennials with tough, fibrous leaves, these either plane and isobilateral or terete in section. The rhizomes are short and contracted, with each season’s growth resulting in a rounded, corm-like increment. In most species the stem consists of the basal, much elongated internode, and in many species both stems and leaves bear fine, longitudinal intercostal furrows in containing the stomata surrounded by papillae or short hairs. The pedicels are ± hairy in the upper part just beneath the ovary and the flowers are rotate with six, subequal, spreading tepals, free suberect stamens, and a short style dividing into three slender branches stigmatic only at the tips. The individual inflorescences are few-flowered rhipidia. In most species these are crowded into a more or less dense head (a synflorescence) but Bobartia paniculata and B. lilacina have a laxly branched stem the branches with sticky nodes and each bearing a single rhipidium. Similar branched stems with sticky nodes are characteristic of the early branching lineages in both Ferraria and Moraea and thus may represent the ancestral condition. The flowers are similar throughout the genus and yellow, except in B. lilacina, which has dark blue (blue-mauve) flowers. B. macrospatha is exceptional in having the ovary included in the spathes, with the perianth usually exserted on a short tube.
There is an evident transition series from the laxly branched stem with two or three well-developed internodes in Bobartia lilacina, through B. paniculata, in which the stem is formed largely from the basal internodes but the flowering stems is branched, to the remaining species with the stem unbranched and several to many rhipidia crowded in a somewhat head-like synflorescence. Molecular DNA sequence data associate Bobartia with the other genera of African Iridoideae Dietes, Ferraria and Moraea, where it appears most closely allied to Dietes, with which it shares hairy pedicels and the presence of fibres in the phloem tissue of the leaves. The morphologically simple flowers are evidently a reversal from the more complex Iris-type characterised by dimorphic tepal whorls and petaloid style branches.
The two species with laxly branches stems, B. lilacina and B. paniculata, were segregated as sect. Ramosae by Lewis (1945) but the detailed anatomical investigations by Strid (1974) suggest that the relationships among the species are more complex. On the basis of stem anatomy Strid recognized three groups of species: 1. Stem without sclerenchyma strands; stomatal furrows and hairs lacking; cuticle thin; vascular bundles without sclerenchyma caps (B. lilacina); 2. Stem with sclerenchyma strands; stomatal furrows and hairs lacking; cuticle thick; vascular bundles with sclerenchyma caps (B. filiformis, B. gladiata, B. paniculata); 3. Stem with sclerenchyma strands; stomatal furrows and hairs present; cuticle thick; vascular bundles with sclerenchyma caps (all others species). Combining these data with inflorescence structure suggests to us a more natural classification recognising four sections.
Microscopic examination is necessary to determine whether or not the stomata are confined to intercostal furrows, especially in dried specimens where shrinkage causes superficial intercostal striations to form between the subdermal sclerenchyma ridges in those species in which they are present. The stems of Bobartia lilacina are unique in lacking sclerenchyma strands and are thus always smooth whereas those of B. filiformis, B. gladiata and B. paniculata are smooth when fresh but develop minute, shallow intercostal grooves when dry. The remaining species have stems that are finely and closely striate, with the papillae or hairs occluding the stomatiferous intercostal furrows evident under high magnification. The taxonomy of the genus remains problematic, despite the careful work by Strid (1974), and the circumscriptions of some species remain to be fully resolved.
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1
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Rhipidia solitary and terminal on branches; stems sticky below nodes; leaves plane
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(2)
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+
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Rhipidia several and congested, usually ± capitate in crowded synflorescence; stem not sticky below nodes
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(3)
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2 (1)
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Stem with lowermost internode greatly elongated and succeeding ones reduced; flowers yellow
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Bobartia paniculata
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Stem with lower 2 internodes both well-developed; flowers deep blue (blue-mauve
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(6)
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3 (1)
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Stem without stomatal furrows (smooth when fresh but shallowly grooved when dry), often linear and flattened; spathes always leaf-like; rhipidia only 1 to 6 per stem
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(4)
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+
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. Stem with numerous, fine stomatal furrows (apparently smooth at low magnification but with numerous, fine furrows lined with papillae or hairs visible at higher magnification), usually terete; subtending bract either leaf-like or dry and fibrous; rhipidia few to many crowded together
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(6)
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4 (3)
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Stem 2.5–8 mm wide; synflorescence strongly flattened; inner rhipidial spathes 25–65 mm long
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Bobartia gladiata
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Stem up to 2 mm wide; synflorescence of 1 or more rhipidia but not flattened; inner rhipidial spathes 25–45 mm long
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(5)
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5 (4)
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Stem linear, ± 2 mm wide; syninflorescence of 3 to 6 rhipidia; plants from Outeniqua Mtns
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Bobartia vlokii
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Stem linear or terete and up to 1.5 mm diam.; synflorescence of a solitary (rarely 2 or 3) rhipidium; plants from west of the Langeberg
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Bobartia filiformis
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6 (2)
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Ovary not exserted from rhipidial spathes and capsules remaining enclosed; pedicels 2–6 mm long; perianth tube absent or up to 7 mm long
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(7)
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+
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Ovary and capsule exserted from rhipidial spathes; pedicels at least 8 mm long; perianth tube always lacking
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(8)
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7 (6)
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Stem and leaves terete or subterete; subtending bract ± brown and fibrous, dilated and partly sheathing synflorescence; rhipidia up to 15 in an obovoid head, suberect, inner spathe mostly 15–20 mm long; capsules 8–10 mm long
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Bobartia macrospatha
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Stem and leaves flat, rarely subterete; subtending bract green and leaf-like, narrow, not much expanded at base or sheathing synflorescence; rhipidia 15 to 40 in a globose head, spreading, inner spathe 12–15 mm long; capsules subglobose to broadly oblong, 5–8(–10) mm long
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Bobartia anceps
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8 (6)
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Subending bract fibrous, grey or brown, dilated or expanded and ± sheathing young synflorescence
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(9)
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+
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Subtending bract narrow, leaf-like, green or with a well-developed foliar tip, not or scarcely sheathing young synflorescence
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(12)
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9 (8)
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Plants 15–40 cm high, slender; synflorescence narrow, of 3–7 rhipidia, ± completely enclosed by dark reddish or chestnut brown subtending bract; capsules smooth; plants from Langeberg
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Bobartia parva
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Plants > 50 cm high; synflorescence of > 12 rhipidia; capsules smooth or tuberculate
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(10)
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10 (9)
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Stem 3–6 mm diam.; subending bract usually green in upper part; tepals 20–32 mm long, inner > half as wide as outer; capsules conspicuously rugose to muricate; plants from southern coastal regions
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Bobartia robusta
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Stem 1–4 mm diam.; subtending bracts usually entirely dry; tepals 16–23 mm long, inner half as wide as outer; capsules smooth to tubercled, plants from west coast mountains
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(11)
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11 (10)
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Synflorescence globose with rhipidia in distinct fascicles of 2 to 6; outer rhipidial spathe greyish brown and much shorter than inner spathes
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Bobartia fasciculata
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Synflorescence obconic, flat-topped, with rhipidia not or indistinctly grouped in fascicles; outer rhipidial spathe dark reddish brown, acuminate and not much shorter than inner spathe
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Bobartia rufa
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12 (8)
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Leaves flexible, much longer than stem; subtending bract suberect or horizontally spreading; pedicel densely villous distally
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Bobartia indica
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Leaves about as long as stem; subtending bract usually suberect or erect; pedicels puberulous to villous
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(13)
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13 (12)
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Synflorescence of 10–80(–120) rhipidia; inner rhipidial spathes 10–18 mm long; capsules 4–6 mm long
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Bobartia orientalis
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Synflorescence of up to 10(–20) rhipidia; inner rhipidial spathes 18 mm or more long
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(14)
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14 (13)
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Ovary and capsules papillate or tubercled; subtending bract often greatly prolonged appearing as an extension of stem, synflorescence thus apparently lateral
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Bobartia aphylla
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Ovary and capsule smooth
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(15)
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15 (14)
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Capsules subglobose, strongly trilobed, 5–8 mm long
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Bobartia gracilis
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Capsules obovoid to top-shaped, 10–19 mm long
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(16)
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16 (15)
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Synflorescence shortly pedunculate; plants from Humansdorp to Grahamstown
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Bobartia macrocarpa
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Synflorescence usually sessile; plants from west of the Breede River
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Bobartia longicyma
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* These counts only include specimens with locations in mappable countries
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