Romulea hantamensis (Diels) Goldblatt

Manning, John C. & Goldblatt, Peter, 2001, the Arabian Peninsula and Socotra including new species, biological notes, and a new infrageneric classification, Adansonia (3) 23 (1), pp. 59-108 : 97-98

56. Romulea hantamensis (Diels) Goldblatt

Fl. Pl. Africa 41: pl. 1613 (1970); M . P . de Vos, J . S . African Bot., Suppl. 9: 289 (1972); Fl. S . Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 71 (1983). — Lapeirousia hantamensis Diels, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 44: 116 (1910). — Type: Diels 732, South Africa, Northern Cape, Calvinia, Hantamsberg (holo-, B!) .

Plants 7-15 cm high, stem subterranean; corm pointed at base with straight acuminate teeth. Leaves 3-10, basal, narrowly 4-grooved; outer bracts with narrow membranous margins, inner bracts with wider white or brownspeckled membranous margins. Flowers hypocrateriform, magenta with purple veining, unscented, perianth tube cylindrical, 35-70 mm long, tepals elliptic, 10-14 mm long; filaments 3 mm long, glabrous, anthers 3-5 mm long. Fruiting peduncles suberect. Flowering: Aug.- Sep.

Romulea hantamensis is restricted to the summit plateau of the Hantamsberg at Calvinia in the western karoo of Northern Cape Province where it grows on damp, rocky dolerite flats in heavy red clay. It is among the more remarkable species in the genus, with its unusually marked, magenta-purple, hypocrateriform flowers with an elongate, cylindrical perianth tube. It is anomalous in section Cruciata e in its chromosome number 2 n = 30 but has the corm tunics with down-pointed teeth typical of the group. The resemblance to R. syringodeoflora , which also has flowers with a cylindrical tube is evidently convergent, for that species has corms with recurved teeth typical of section Spatalanthus .

ROMULEA subg. ROMULEA sect. 6. SPATA- LANTHUS

Romulea sect. Roseae Bég., Malpighia 23: 60 (1909); M.P. de Vos, J. S. African Bot., Suppl. 9: 202 (1972). — Type: Romulea rosea (L.) Eckl.; syn. nov.

Romulea sect. Hirtae Bég., Annuaire Conserv. Jard. Bot. Genève 11-12: 159 (1908); M.P. de Vos, J. S. African Bot., Suppl. 9: 269 (1972). — Type: Romulea hirta Schltr. ; syn. nov.

Corms rounded, without a basal ridge, tunics with recurved basal teeth. Leaves rarely without secondary bundles, usually with vascular girders, rib marginal strands and rib marginal bundles.

— Ser. ROSEAE