Tropicos | Name - !Babiana latifolia L. Bolus

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Babiana > Babiana latifolia

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!Babiana latifolia L. Bolus

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

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 11/4/2016)

Description: Plants 100–250 mm high. Stem inclined, usually 2–4-branched, densely hairy. Leaves lanceolate, to 20 mm wide, soft and lightly pleated, softly hairy. Spike several-flowered; bracts green with brown tips, densely long-hairy, 15–25 mm long, outer obtuse-acuminate, inner slightly shorter than outer, divided to base. Flowers zygomorphic, violet with whitish or pale violet median streaks on lower lateral tepals; perianth tube cylindric, curved near apex, 30–40 mm long; tepals unequal, dorsal suberect, 22–26 mm long, lower tepals obtuse to obtuse apiculate, 17–21 mm long, joined to upper laterals for ± 4 mm, forming a fairly prominent lower lip. Stamens unilateral, filaments arcuate, ± 12 mm long; anthers ± 6 mm long, dark blue black. Ovary densely hairy; style dividing opposite upper thirds of anthers, branches ± 4 mm long, tips unusually large and undulate, overtopping anthers. Flowering time: August to early September.

Country: South Africa

South African Province: Western Cape

Distribution and ecology: known only from the eastern base and lower slopes of the Piketberg in Western Cape; on loamy sandstone-derived soils.

Diagnosis: described H.M.L. Bolus in 1927 from plants cultivated in a garden in Piketberg, Western Cape, Babiana latifolia appeared novel to her because of the elongate perianth tube and divided inner bracts,thus seemingly taxonomically isolated from other species with similar bracts and a densely hairy ovary. At the time she was unaware of the existence of the plant described as B. ecklonii in 1882 by F.W. Klatt. In fact, B. ecklonii seems the appropriate species with which to compare B. latifolia. It has a similar elongate perianth tube, divided inner bracts and an ovary hairy in the upper half. Lewis (1959) considered the two conspecific, but treated B. latifolia as var. latifolia of B. ecklonii, distinguished by its somewhat smaller flowers and broader and lightly crenate stigma lobes.

The two species differ in several important characters: B. latifolia has unusual style branches conspicuously enlarged at the tips, purple flower colour with narrow white nectar guides on the lower lateral tepals, blue-black anthers, and obtuse apiculate tepal tips. Flowers of B. ecklonii are violet with broad white to pale yellow nectar guides, the anthers are pale violet, and the tepals are narrow and acute. The style divides opposite the anther apices in B. latifolia and the style branches are ± 4 mm long with the tips unusually broad and undulate. In B. ecklonii the point of division of the style and length of style branches is variable, in different individuals, dividing variously below the anthers and ± 2 mm long, or opposite the middle or close to the anther apices and up to 4 mm long, but in both cases the style branches are slender, widening gradually toward the tips. Vegetatively the two also differ: in B. latifolia the leaf and stem pubescence is velvety but in B. ecklonii the pubescence is longer and sparser and the erect stem is largely sheathed by the leaf bases whereas the stem of B. latifolia arches outward and is free of the leaf bases for at least half its length.

Pollination: as expected from its long perianth tube, flowers of B. latifolia are pollinated by the long-proboscid flies