taxonID	type	description	language	source
60315A27843CFF92FF73E527FAA1D31B.taxon	diagnosis	Diagnosis: — Litanthus deserticola is similar to L. pusillus based on the white, nodding flowers with tepals long connate, but the new species differs by the hysteranthous leaves (not usually synanthous); single, nodding, urceolate flower (not tubular and slightly constricted at the middle) with very short, reflexed lobes; stamens adnate to tepals and arising from their basal quarter (not arising along the apical third), with ovate-lanceolate filaments which are much longer than anthers (not linear and much shorter than anthers); and its occurrence in desertic regions with winter rainfall (not aseasonal or summer rainfall regions).	en	Martínez-Azorín, Mario, Crespo, Manuel B., Alonso-Vargas, María Ángeles, Villar, José Luis, Rügheimer, Silke, Chase, Frances (2025): Litanthus deserticola (Hyacinthaceae subfam. Urgineoideae), a new species from southern Namibia. Phytotaxa 731 (2): 139-149, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4
60315A27843CFF92FF73E527FAA1D31B.taxon	materials_examined	Type: — NAMIBIA. Karas Region: Lüderitz, Pockenbank, ca. 60 km S of Aus on C 13, large granitic boulders beside picnic spot, elev. 1000 m, rock crevices and shallow sandy soils, ex hort. in Alicante, Spain, 23 July 2025 (in flower), M. Martínez-Azorín, M. B. Crespo, M. A. Alonso, C. Mannheimer, S. Rügheimer, F. Chase, J. L. Villar et al. MMA 1653 (WIND holotype; ABH isotype). Deciduous, dwarf, bulbous geophyte. Bulb hypogeal, solitary or mother bulb splitting to form small clumps, ovoid to subglobose, 10 ‒ 17 × 9 ‒ 15 mm, with a hypogeal neck 4 ‒ 12 mm long, outer scales scarious, pale brown, inner scales white or translucent, fleshy. Roots thickened and branched, to 15 mm long. Leaves 1 ‒ 2, filiform, subterete, 25 ‒ 50 mm long, 0.5 ‒ 0.7 mm wide, suberect to spreading, green, glabrous, hysteranthous. Inflorescence formed by 1 terminal, nodding flower; peduncle erect, terete, glabrous, 40 – 60 mm long, green; pedicels ca. 1.5 mm long at anthesis, recurved, erect in fruit to 2 mm long. Bracts two, only one with flower, terminal, subopposite, clasping pedicel on both sides, obovate, pale brown-orange with white-translucent margin, ca. 0.8 × 1 mm, with spur ca. 0.8 mm long, truncate, clasping the peduncle and approaching to the opposite spur bract resembling to form a tubular structure; bracteoles absent. Flowers urceolate, nodding, without discernible scent. Tepals 6, white, fused for most of their length to form an urn shaped corolla, 3.5 ‒ 4.2 × 3 ‒ 3.5 mm, ending in short apical spreading lobes ca. 0.8 mm long, with a greenish central longitudinal band along the distal portion. Stamens 6, included in perigone tube; filaments adnate to tepals for 0.5 mm, and arising around the basal fourth of perigone, free portions ovate-lanceolate, 2 ‒ 2.3 mm long, ca. 0.8 mm at the widest portion, tapering, flattened, white, smooth; anthers 1 ‒ 1.2 mm long, sagittate, cordate at base, connective extended at apex into membranous flap, erect and connivent to style, introrse, opening by longitudinal slits, with yellow pollen. Ovary oblong, ca. 1.8 × 1.2 mm, orange to reddish with paler septal nectaries. Style white, erect, 2 ‒ 2.3 mm long, slightly exceeding perigone at anthesis, narrowly columnar, tapering to stigma and ending in 6 erect, minute, lobes. Capsule ovate to subglobose, trigonous with blunt edges in section, ca. 3 × 2.5 mm, uniformly pale brown when ripe, withered tepals basally circumscissile remaining as a cap at the top of the developing capsule. Seeds trigonous, narrowly pyramidal, pointed, 0.7 – 0.9 mm long, ca. 35 per capsule, black, with rugose testa.	en	Martínez-Azorín, Mario, Crespo, Manuel B., Alonso-Vargas, María Ángeles, Villar, José Luis, Rügheimer, Silke, Chase, Frances (2025): Litanthus deserticola (Hyacinthaceae subfam. Urgineoideae), a new species from southern Namibia. Phytotaxa 731 (2): 139-149, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4
60315A27843CFF92FF73E527FAA1D31B.taxon	etymology	Etymology: — The specific epithet, deserticola (from the Latin words “ desertum, - i ”, desert, and “ - cola ”, occurring in the habitat), refers to the very arid habitat of the new species, which clearly contrasts with the much more humid and mostly summer-rainfall regions where the typical and most common species of the genus occurs. Phenology and biology: — Litanthus deserticola produces leaves around August at its type locality and at Namuskloof Farm in southern Namibia, although the species will probably adapt to the scarce and uneven rainfall patterns of the region. Flowers appear in July (summer) in cultivation in the northern hemisphere (University of Alicante, Spain), when leaves are completely withered for some months and watering has been restricted; fruits and seeds are set around August, in about two weeks after anthesis. Flowers are diurnal and fugacious, being fully opened around noon and closed at night. No scent has been recorded in the species. Habitat: — Litanthus deserticola grows in very arid regions of southern Namibia (Fig. 3), in coarse, granitic, shallow, sandy soils, in crevices of boulders and on rock ledges, sometimes accompanied by liverworts in shaded south facing cliffs near seasonal waterfalls at Namuskloof Farm near Rosh Pinah. The new species is found in the Southern Desert region in the Desert Biome, with nearby patches of Nama Karoo Biome and Desert — Dwarf Shrub Transition region and also Succulent Karoo region. Rainfall in the region is scarce and unpredictable. The western Namib, where the type locality of the new species occurs, gets less rain (5 mm) than eastern Namib (85 mm), and rainfall peaks are concentrated from January to April in the eastern Namib (Atlas of Namibia Team 2022). In biome classification by Mucina & Rutherford (2024), the localities where L. deserticola populations were found, fall within the regional biome DN 1 Southern Namib Desert.	en	Martínez-Azorín, Mario, Crespo, Manuel B., Alonso-Vargas, María Ángeles, Villar, José Luis, Rügheimer, Silke, Chase, Frances (2025): Litanthus deserticola (Hyacinthaceae subfam. Urgineoideae), a new species from southern Namibia. Phytotaxa 731 (2): 139-149, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4
60315A27843CFF92FF73E527FAA1D31B.taxon	distribution	Distribution: — Litanthus deserticola is only known from the type locality, near Pockenbank, ca. 60 km S of Aus on C 13 (Fig. 3), therefore being endemic to the Namibian flora. A second population of Litanthus was found at Farm Namuskloof near Rosh Pinah (MMA 1594) (Fig. 6) in similar habitats, fitting vegetative and fruiting morphology. Flowering material (including a flower dissection) is necessary for confirmation of this second population and is the aim of our current research based on cultivated plants. The very small size of the new species, its fugacious flowering time together with its hysteranthous behaviour, assist its cryptic appearance and may explain it being overlooked until now. Even when the species is found in flower in habitat, the most important diagnostic characters are only discernible when the tiny flowers of ca. 4 mm long are dissected to reveal filaments morphology and disposition, and the species may have been easily confused with the more widespread L. pusillus. No citations of Litanthus appears to have been made in Namibia so far (Craven 1999, Klaassen & Kwembeya 2013), therefore this representing the first record of the genus for the Namibian flora. The taxonomic revision of Litanthus by Manning et al. (2013) presented a distribution map for L. pusillus, where the species is widely spread in southern and eastern South Africa and southern Zimbabwe, but only one disjunct locality is cited from arid regions in the northern areas of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa (Aggenys, Gamsberg, P. Desmet 3071 NBG!) (see Fig. 2 in Manning et al. 2013). The study of this herbarium collection shows a bulb with a single filiform leaf, an inflorescence with a single flower and a peduncle with a capsule. The flower at dry stage is ca. 4 mm long with a tubular shape and constricted around the middle, and anthers are located in the apical third of the flower, which would fit with L. pusillus but also L. deserticola at dry stage. It is necessary to study the morphology and shape of the filaments with a dissection of the flower from the herbarium collection or from fresh material collected from that locality to elucidate whether it is conspecific to L. deserticola. By now, we prefer considering this collection as unidentified, until further data are gathered for clarification. It is probable that L. deserticola occurs in other regions of southern Namibia and the northern territories of NW South Africa with similar habitats and climate and probably went unnoticed until now due to its cryptic appearance. Our recent collections from Naib se Berge (MMA 2050, ABH) and from Dabenoris Mountains (MMA 2079, ABH) in northwestern South Africa resemble L. deserticola at vegetative stage. Flowering material is necessary to properly identify those latter collections and is focus of our current research. Further studies are needed to ascertain its distribution range and possible threats. Diagnostic characters and taxonomic relationships: — Litanthus deserticola resembles L. pusillus in the general characters of the genus, such as the usually 1 - flowered inflorescence; two subopposite spurred bracts; nodding flowers with tepals connate into a long tube; stamens included with and elongation of the anther connective into a small, translucent, membranous flap; and stigma with six minute, erect teeth (Fig. 1). However, L. deserticola differs by the hysteranthous leaves (vs. commonly synanthous), the urceolate corolla (vs. tubular and constricted around the middle), the filaments being shortly adnate to the corolla for 0.5 mm, and arising around the basal quarter of the tube, ovate-lanceolate, flattened, 2 ‒ 2.3 mm long, distinctly longer than anthers (vs. linear, ca. 0.5 mm long, arising along the apical third of tube and being much shorter than anthers), and its occurrence in desertic regions of southern Namibia (vs. in aseasonal or summer rainfall regions in southern and eastern South Africa and southern Zimbabwe). Litanthus stenocarpus differs from the new species by the longer and tubular flowers 6 ‒ 7 mm long (vs. shorter and urceolate, 3.5 ‒ 4.2 mm long), with tepals cream-coloured showing a distinct brownish longitudinal central band on each tepal along their whole length (vs. white, with a greenish longitudinal central band only visible along the distal half), the filaments linear, 0.5 ‒ 0.7 mm long, adnate to the perigone and inserted at the distal quarter of tube, much shorter than anthers (vs. ovate-lanceolate, flattened, 2 ‒ 2.3 mm long, shortly adnate to the perigone for 0.5 mm, and arising around the basal quarter of tube, distinctly longer than anthers), the ovary about as long as the style (vs. distinctly shorter) and the cylindrical-prismatic, strongly bicoloured capsules (vs. subglobose and uniformly brownish coloured) (Fig. 2) (Manning et al. 2013).	en	Martínez-Azorín, Mario, Crespo, Manuel B., Alonso-Vargas, María Ángeles, Villar, José Luis, Rügheimer, Silke, Chase, Frances (2025): Litanthus deserticola (Hyacinthaceae subfam. Urgineoideae), a new species from southern Namibia. Phytotaxa 731 (2): 139-149, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4
60315A27843CFF92FF73E527FAA1D31B.taxon	description	History and phylogenetic relationships: — Litanthus was described by Harvey (1844) as monotypic to include L. pusillus, a very distinct genus accepted by most researchers working in Urgineoideae (Baker 1871, Hooker 1872, Jessop 1977, Speta 1998 a, 1998 b, Martínez-Azorín et al. 2015, 2023 a, 2023 b). However, Goldblatt & Manning (2000), Manning et al. (2004), and Manning & Goldblatt (2018) merged Litanthus in synonymy of Drimia sensu lato, and the revision of Urgineoideae in Southern Africa by Manning & Goldblatt (2018) placed L. pusillus and L. stenocarpus in Drimia sect. Litanthus, a solution not followed here and extensively discussed by Martínez-Azorín et al. (2023 a, 2023 b). The phylogenetic studies by Manning et al. (2004), Pfosser & Speta (2001, 2004) and Pfosser et al. (2012) recovered samples of Litanthus pusillus as sister to Schizobasis Baker (1873: 105). This relationship was confirmed in the phylogenetic analyses by Martínez-Azorín et al. (2023 b), where four samples of Litanthus form a strongly supported clade sister to the monophyletic Schizobasis, including eleven samples. The relationship of Litanthus and Schizobasis could be considered surprising based on their different flower and inflorescence morphology but it is supported by the apiculate anther connective or the angled seeds, as shown by Manning & Goldblatt (2018). The relationship between the two genera is further supported by the overall flower morphology of the recently described Schizobasis litanthiflora Crouch & Martínez-Azorín (2024: 203), suggesting a possible coevolution of this species with the sympatric L. pusillus that may share a similar pollination syndrome or pollinator (Crouch & Martínez-Azorín 2024). Among the four samples of Litanthus included in the phylogenetic study by Martínez-Azorín (2023 b), two samples of L. stenocarpus (H 872 and HBG 03935 from Worcester, South Africa) form a fully supported clade which is sister to a fully supported clade comprising two samples identified as L. pusillus (MMA 888 from Toorwater Poort, Uniondale, South Africa and MMA 1653 from Pockenbank, ca. 60 km S of Aus, Namibia). At the time of publication of this phylogenetic study, flowering material was not available for sample MMA 1653 from southern Namibia, and therefore, it was assumed that it was L. pusillus due to its phylogenetic placement, being sister to sample MMA 888. However, our study shows clear evidence on the morphological and biogeographic differentiation between Litanthus deserticola (MMA 1653) and L. pusillus. Although they are sister related species, both samples present about 50 nucleotide changes in the combined DNA matrix published by Martínez-Azorín (2023 a), further supporting separation of the newly described species.	en	Martínez-Azorín, Mario, Crespo, Manuel B., Alonso-Vargas, María Ángeles, Villar, José Luis, Rügheimer, Silke, Chase, Frances (2025): Litanthus deserticola (Hyacinthaceae subfam. Urgineoideae), a new species from southern Namibia. Phytotaxa 731 (2): 139-149, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4
60315A27843CFF92FF73E527FAA1D31B.taxon	materials_examined	Additional material studied (paratypes): — NAMIBIA. Karas Region: Lüderitz, Pockenbank, ca. 60 km S of Aus on C 13, large granitic boulders beside picnic spot, elev. 1000 m, rock crevices and shallow sandy soils, 06 August 2016 (vegetative), M. Martínez-Azorín, M. B. Crespo, M. A. Alonso, C. Mannheimer, S. Rügheimer, F. Chase, J. L. Villar, A. Vicente, J. Moreno & A. Terrones MMA 1653 (ABH 74034, WIND); Karas Region: Rosh Pinah, ca. 16 km NE of Rosh Pinah, Namuskloof Farm, valley with seasonal waterfall ca. 1.6 km NE of farm house, elev. 794 m, rock crevices with liverworts, 02 August 2016 (vegetative), M. Martínez-Azorín, M. B. Crespo, M. A. Alonso, C. Mannheimer, S. Rügheimer, F. Chase, J. L. Villar, A. Vicente, J. Moreno & A. Terrones MMA 1594 (ABH 73977, WIND).	en	Martínez-Azorín, Mario, Crespo, Manuel B., Alonso-Vargas, María Ángeles, Villar, José Luis, Rügheimer, Silke, Chase, Frances (2025): Litanthus deserticola (Hyacinthaceae subfam. Urgineoideae), a new species from southern Namibia. Phytotaxa 731 (2): 139-149, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.4
