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(Last Modified On 1/25/2017)
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Acceptance
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Accepted
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(Last Modified On 1/26/2017)
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Description:
Plants (400–)900–1200 mm high. Corm 20–30 mm diam.; tunics coriaceous to papery, often becoming more or less fibrous with age, dark red-brown. Leaves 4–10, lower 2 to 5 basal, reaching to about base of spike, sometimes slightly exceeding it, blades lanceolate, (6–)12–17 mm wide, glabrous, sometimes glaucous, or occasionally densely tomentose, firm-textured, main vein, margins, and often 1 or more pairs of secondary veins lightly thickened, upper leaves progressively shorter, and uppermost 1 or 2 sometimes entirely sheathing. Stem often inclined in wild, unbranched, 3–4 mm diam. at spike base. Spike (3–)5- to 8-flowered; bracts green entirely or flushed purple below, outer 50–80 mm long, inner shorter, concealed by the outer. Flowers white, lower 3 tepals each with a narrow to broad dark purple streak in lower midline or at base; perianth tube more or less cylindric and straight throughout, (85–)120–140 mm long; tepals lanceolate, more or less equal, 35–40 x 18–20 mm. Filaments c. 25 mm long, exserted (2–)5–8(–10) mm from tube; anthers 10–17 mm long, with acute apiculate appendages 0.5–1(–1.5) mm long, reaching to at least middle of tepals. Ovary oblong, 5–8 mm long; style arching over stamens, dividing at or beyond anther apices, branches 4–6 mm long, much expanded in upper 1/2. Capsules ellipsoid, 18–20 mm long, concealed in bracts at least until mature; seeds 7–8 x c. 5 mm, broadly winged. Chromosome number 2n = 30. Flowering time: nainly October to December, the tomentose variant from interior Sierra Leone flowering in August.
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Country:
Cameroon, Sierra Leone
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Distribution and ecology:
scattered across western Africa, with centers in Sierra Leone in the west and the highlands of Cameroon in the east, also on the island of Fernando Po, southwest of Cameroon, on Santa Isabella Peak; mainly in montane habitats, usually above 450 m and up to 2600 m on Fernando Po, where they grow in rocky situations, often on wet ledges on steep cliffs, but also in stony grassland.
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Diagnosis:
first of the several West African species of the Acidanthera group be discovered, Gladiolus aequinoctialis has the typical traits including a white flower with a long perianth tube, typically 120–140 mm long, and anthers with long acute apiculate appendages. Possibly most closely related to the Ethiopian and eastern African montane G. murielae, and easily confused with it, G. aequinoctialis can be distinguished only with difficulty. The main differences are the leaves, those of G. aequinoctialis being firmer in texture and having more conspicuous veins, particularly the secondary veins, which in G. murielae are very weakly developed. Another difference is the size of the anther apiculi, typically at least 2 mm long in G. murielae but only 0.5–1.5 mm in G. aequinoctialis. The filaments of G. murielae are also longer and exserted (5–)10–12 mm from the tube, whereas in G. aequinoctialis the filaments are exserted 2–8(–10) mm.
Particularly short filaments characterize the form of Gladiolus aequinoctialis from Cameroon and Fernando Po. In those plants the filaments are exserted for no more than 2 mm. These populations of G. aequinoctialis are also distinctive in being relatively short and in having very inconspicuous markings on the lower tepals. Plants from Sierra Leone to the west are often taller, have filaments exserted for 5 to 10 mm, and the markings on the tepals are larger. These differences prompted François Vaupel to name the Cameroon form, first collected by Mildbraed on Fernando Po, G. divinus. This has been considered it to be no more than a variety of G. aequinoctialis, but it is not currently recognized taxonomically. Another variant of G. aequinoctialis, variety tomentosus, is also not currently recognized. Tomentose plants occur locally in interior Sierra Leone, but they seem to differ in no other way from typical G. aequinoctialis, except possibly in their earlier flowering, in August. Flowering in other populations of G. aequinoctialis is mostly in October to December, but occasionally in late August and September. Additional collections of the poorly known tomentose variant are needed so that this treatment can be verified. The presence of pubescence alone is normally not considered sufficient to merit recognition of new taxa. Variants with pubescent or scabrid leaves are also known, for example, in the southern tropical African G. oligophlebius and G. benguellensis, and the degree of development of pubescence on the leaves of G. laxiflorus is notably variable.
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