Published In:
Systematic Botany 20(2): 172. 1995. ( Syst. Bot.) 
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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 7/29/2016)
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Description:
Deciduous geophyte, (50–) 70–200 mm tall, including flowers. Corm subglobose, 5–8 mm diam, tunics of fine to medium-textured, netted fibres. Cataphylls membranous, pale, upper reaching to ground level. Leaves 3, basal, prostrate, oblong, lower two largest, 20–50(–70) × 5–18(–20) mm, upper leaf ± half as large. Stem terete, inclined at base but then stiffly erect, to 180 mm long, with up to 4 short or longer branches 5–30 mm long, each subtended by short cauline bract. Inflorescence of solitary flowers on main and lateral axes, sometimes a second inflorescence developing in axil of upper leaf; bracts green, 5–7 mm long, inner slightly longer than outer and often shortly forked apically. Flowers zygomorphic, white, flushed purplish on tube, unmarked, with sweet-spicy fragrance, perianth tube erect, cylindric, 18–25(–33) mm long, wider and curved just below apex, 1.0–1.5 mm diam. at mouth, tepals subequal, 4–7 × 1–3 mm, weakly cucullate apically, dorsal erect but others spreading ± horizontally at right angles to tube. Filaments unilateral, 3–5 mm long, exserted ± 2 mm from tube, anthers 1.0–2.5 mm long, dark purple, pollen grey-blue. Ovary ellipsoid, style branching between base and middle of anthers, branches 2 mm long, deeply forked and apically recurved. Capsule oblong to cylindric, (8–)12–20 × 2.5–4.0 mm. Seeds ± 1 mm diam. Flowering time: mainly August to September, rarely in late July.
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Country:
South Africa, Namibia
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South African Province:
Northern Cape, Western Cape
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Distribution and ecology:
widespread along the near interior of the southern African Atlantic coast and the western Karoo, Xenoscapa fistulosa extends from near Rosh Pinah at the southern edge of the Huib Hoch Plateau in southern Namibia through the higher-lying parts of the Richtersveld and Namaqualand into Western Cape, where it occurs in the northern Cedarberg and inland onto the Roggeveld Escarpment, thence southwards into the Worcester Valley as far east as Montagu and thence to Laingsburg and the northern foothills of the Klein Swartberg. Populations also occur along the west coast between Vredenburg and the lower slopes of Lions Head on the Cape Peninsula. The species is mostly restricted to shale or gneiss/granite substrates, rarely on other rock types in the Richtersveld and southern Namibia, from near sea-level to almost 1 300m. It avoids sandstone-derived soils of the Cape System and is thus virtually absent from the southwestern Cape mountain systems — the coastal stations in the southwestern Cape are from granite outcrops.
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Diagnosis:
Xenoscapa fistulosa is recognized by relatively long-tubed, unmarked white flowers with strong sweet-spicy fragrance. The slender perianth tube is mostly 18–25 mm long, exceptionally 30–33 mm long in plants from Pakhuis Pass and the northern Cedarberg (Leipoldt s.n., Goldblatt 544), and only 1–1.5 mm diam at the mouth. The tepals are mostly smaller and narrower, 4–6(–7) × 1–3 mm, than in pink-flowered X. grandiflora and X. uliginosa. Most collectors remark on the strong floral fragrance, which immediately distinguishes the species from its unscented congeners. Although the smallest-flowered species in the genus, X. fistulosa may grow much taller than the other species, the stem reaching up to 180 mm long, with the lateral branches up to 30 mm long. The capsules are similarly often significantly longer, up to 18 mm long and strongly cylindric.
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Pollination:
the unmarked white flowers of Xenoscapa fistulosa with their sweet-spicey fragrance suggest that the species is adapted to moth pollination. It co-occurs with long-proboscid fly-pollinated X. uliginosa in the Kamiesberg where hybrids between the two have been recorded.
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Specimens whose coordinates are enclosed in square brackets [ ] have been mapped to a standard reference mark based on political
units.
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Africa & Madagascar
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South Africa
Western Cape:
C.F. Ecklon & C.L.P. Zeyher Irid 254
(MO)
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South Africa
Northern Cape:
18 September 1980,
Peter Goldblatt 5848
(MO)
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South Africa
Northern Cape:
12 September 1981,
Peter Goldblatt 6248
(MO)
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South Africa
Northern Cape:
4 September 1991,
Peter Goldblatt 9172
(MO)
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South Africa
Western Cape:
26 September 1983,
Peter Goldblatt & Deirdré A. Snijman 6971A
(MO)
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South Africa
Northern Cape:
18 September 1991,
Peter Goldblatt & John C. Manning 9245
(MO)
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South Africa
Northern Cape:
24 August 1992,
Peter Goldblatt & John C. Manning 9320
(MO)
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South Africa
Western Cape:
2 September 1992,
Peter Goldblatt & John C. Manning 9374
(MO)
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South Africa
Western Cape:
8 September 1992,
Peter Goldblatt & John C. Manning 9429
(MO)
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South Africa
Northern Cape:
21 August 2001,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 11734
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South Africa
Western Cape:
1 September 2001,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 11802
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South Africa
Northern Cape:
25 August 2002,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 12119
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South Africa
Western Cape:
3136 f,
33°22'39"S 021°17'24"E,
21 September 2003,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 12327
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South Africa
Western Cape:
3170 f,
30°42'38"S 018°59'52"E,
5 September 2006,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 12766
(MO)
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South Africa
Northern Cape:
10 Sept 2007,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 12982
(MO)
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South Africa
Northern Cape:
3790 ft,
31°35'16"S 019°51'17"E,
17 September 2008,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 13134
(MO)
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South Africa
Western Cape:
2015 - 2212 ft,
32°07'24"S 019°10'53"E,
18 August 2015,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 14083
(MO)
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South Africa
Western Cape:
908 ft,
33°46'40"S 019°42'52"E,
24 August 2015,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 14103
(MO)
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South Africa
Western Cape:
1861 ft,
33°39'13"S 019°59'29"E,
25 August 2015,
Peter Goldblatt & Lendon J. Porter 14108
(MO)
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