identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
03F78784FFE78347FF4DFA0B93990123.text	03F78784FFE78347FF4DFA0B93990123.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Eucomis nubigena N. R. Crouch, Mart. - Azorin, Cron. & A. J. Beaumont	<div><p>Eucomis nubigena N.R.Crouch, Mart.-Azorín, Cron. &amp; A.J.Beaumont, sp. nov. (Figs 1–3)</p><p>Diagnosis:— Eucomis nubigena may be distinguished from all other genus members in the overall size of its flowering habit (no taller than 15 mm vs. up to 2 m), in bearing far fewer flowers (no more than 5 vs. at least 25) on inflorescences no taller than 15 mm vs. at least 10 cm, with each flower subtended by a cupular bract, and producing cleistogamous rather than chasmogamous flowers with tepals that do not spread or recurve but instead incurve to produce a closed urceolate perigone. It further differs from all other species of Eucomis in having basally positioned ovules, with no more than 3 ovules per locule, in having no more than two leaves with rugose adaxial surfaces, each leaf is spathulate rather than lorate-lanceolate, and coma bracts that are suborbicular and succulent rather than ovate-lanceolate and membranous.</p><p>Type: — SOUTH AFRICA. KwaZulu-Natal, southern Drakensberg: localised colonies in shallow pockets of basal gravel on basalt outcrops, elevation 3070 m, 26 December 2024, N. Crouch 1303 (holotype J; isotype ABH) .</p><p>Description:—Dwarf geophyte, solitary, deciduous, immaculate, summer-growing, 5–15 mm tall. Bulb ovoid, widest near base, 10–13 × 10–15 mm, with distinct truncate basal plate 1.5–2.0 mm long, solitary, scales cream, apices obtuse; tunic 1-layered, membranous, mid-brown; roots whitish, to 45 mm long; cataphyll triangular, 14–24 × 6–8 mm, translucent white, subterranean, adhering to leaf bases, apex obtuse. Leaves 1 or 2, spathulate, contemporary with flowers, opposite, spreading to appressed; pseudo-petiole subterranean, sheathing peduncle, (25–)34–50 × 3–4 mm, white proximally becoming greenish-maroon distally; blade aerial, spreading to appressed, weakly convex above, ovate to elliptic, apex obtuse, 19–30 × 14–23 mm, upper surface dark green suffused with maroon, rugose veins, both parallel and perpendicular, obvious and depressed, the parallel veins becoming conduplicate distally, lower surface concave, maroon, minutely pimpled; margins entire, maroon. Peduncle short, mostly hypogeal, clavate, thickened with widest portion below inflorescence, 1.0–5.0 × 1.8–2.0 mm, erect, white flecked with maroon in the upper portion. Raceme solitary, broadly cylindrical, 4.0–6.0 × 0.8–2.0 mm, erect, dense, (1–)2–4(–6) flowered; rachis green-maroon; fertile bracts cupular, fleshy, papillate, apex broadly notched to truncated, ca. 1.4 × 3.0 mm. Coma bracteate, as wide as raceme to slightly overtopping, bracts 3–5(–7), carnose, convex above, convex to planar below; ovate to suborbicular, 2.5–5.0 × 2.0– 4.2 mm, suberect to spreading and weakly recurved, usually obscuring upper flowers, colouration and texture as for leaves. Flowers suberect, subsessile but appearing sessile in axis with bract, obtusely angular, elliptical to somewhat trapezoidal in lateral view. Perigone greenish basally, maroon distally; tepals connivent, incurving distally, obovate-oblanceolate, 5.0–7.0 × 2.0– 2.2 mm, fused for basal ca. two fifths (2.0– 3.4 mm) to form a tube, cucullate, persistent, margins maroon distally, apices hooded, penicillate. Stamens 6, arising near base of perigone, included; filaments 4.0– 4.3 mm long, partly fused; fused part of filaments adnate to tepals for 2.3–3.0 mm, connate at their base to form a deep cup (2.6–3.3 mm long), free filament portions triangular, 1.7–2.0 × 1.0– 1.4 mm, white, curved inwards; anthers versatile, introrse, ovate-deltate, 0.8–0.9 × 0.5–0.6 mm, white, pollen yellow. Ovary trilocular, inflated, ovoid, gibbous, 3.5–4.0 × 2.6–2.8 mm, green; ovules oblong, laterally compressed, whitish, 0.8–2.0 × 0.2–0.6 mm, 3 per locule, positioned basally, funicles of varying length; style tapering, 1.0– 1.1 mm long, white at base, maroon at apex; stigma penicillate. Capsule inflated, gibbous, ovoid-oblate with acumen, papyraceous, ca. 12 × 11 mm, reddish-brown, triallate. Seeds up to 2 per locule, obovoid, 3.0–4.0 × 1.9–2.2 mm, reticulate, dark brown.</p><p>Etymology:—The specific epithet nubigena (from the Latin nubigenus, –a, –um; meaning “dweller in the clouds”) refers to its abode at high elevations, where plants are regularly shrouded by mist and clouds.</p><p>Biology:—Flowering in the wild occurs in mid-summer (late December through January) in southern Africa, with leaves fully developed at the time of flowering. Most flowering individuals bear two leaves (Fig. 1A) although a proportion of plants bear a single spathulate leaf. The leaves of plants usually lie appressed to the ground with the inflorescence no taller than 15 mm (Fig. 3A–B, I). No floral scent was detected, nor was the production of nectar observed, consistent with the development of cleistogamous flowers (see Figs 1A, 2A, 3A, F, I) by this autogamous species (Lord 1981). Flowers were uniform within and among ca. 300 plants in the two populations studied, approximately 15% of which were observed to produce inflorescences in a season. No evidence of open, chasmogamous flowers was detected. Fruits of E. nubigena develop rapidly and are contemporaneous with mature flowers in the same inflorescence. In their habitat, plants experience a Mean Annual Precipitation of between 830 mm and 1820 mm and significant air temperature variation (ca. 38º C) between summer and winter months (Mucina et al. 2006). With exposure to snow and frequent frost (averaging 55 days per annum; Mucina et al. 2006), plants of E. nubigena are of necessity deciduous, retiring to their bulbs over winter, with these organs typically buried to a depth of ca. 65 mm.</p><p>Habitat:—Plants are glareicolous, growing in full sun in shallow pockets of basal gravel on level ledges of basalt outcrops at elevations between 3050 m and 3075 m, within uKhahlamba Basalt Grassland (Gd 7) (Mucina et al. 2006). The mountain slopes on which it may be found are usually of southwestern aspect. Few other plant taxa inhabit the stony substrate in which E. nubigena plants are found (Fig. 1C, E.).</p><p>Distribution:—Known so far only from the southern Drakensberg where it occurs near the escarpment edge (Fig. 1E) and has been documented in both South Africa and Lesotho. The distribution of Eucomis nubigena falls entirely within the Maloti Alpine Sub-centre of the DMC (Carbutt 2019). A photographic voucher for the occurrence of this new species in Lesotho is presented in Fig. 1C. Except for this most general description of its distribution, no locality data from specimens or field observations are given: a deviation from widely followed taxonomic practice. This is justified by the fact that illegal collecting of certain range-restricted geophytes from the wild in southern Africa is a severe and escalating problem. It was therefore decided not to provide any precise locality information that could facilitate known populations of this novelty to be destructively targeted (Smith et al. 2023). This is especially necessary as the genus Eucomis is of significant horticultural interest (see Compton 1990, Duncan 2007), for although this novelty arguably may lack ornamental appeal to some, it is highly likely that stock of E. nubigena will nonetheless be sought after for hybridisation programmes to introduce extreme dwarfing attributes to offspring, and as a collectable curiosity.</p><p>Diagnostic characters and taxonomic relationships:— Eucomis nubigena is a highly distinct species (Figs 1–3), readily distinguished from all other genus members in its overall size (ca. 15 mm high) (Figs 1B, 3B), in its one or two leaves with rugose rather than smooth upper texture, its few-flowered inflorescences (no more than 5 flowers; Fig. 2A) that are no taller than 15 mm, in each flower being subtended by a cupular bract (Figs 2A, 3I), and in its production of cleistogamous flowers with closed urceolate perigones (Figs 2A, 3F, I). Flowers of E. nubigena are sessile in their axes and have a near upright stance, directed 45 ° or less from the vertical. In contrast, most other taxa are pedicellate with flowers opening 45 ° –90 ° from the main axis and bear older flowers angled gradually downwards. The closed perigone of E. nubigena is unique within the group. A small pore-like opening (&lt;0.5 mm) sometimes observed at the flower mouth where the tepals do not meet (Figs 1A, 2A–B, 3A, F) is considered the result of pressure on the tepals by the expanding fruits. Flowers of E. nubigena are actinomorphic, with uniformity within whorls (Fig. 3F, H), which is consistent with other members of the group. The mouths of E. nubigena flowers nevertheless appear slightly angled, and slight curvature differences of the tepals create a trapezoidal outline of flowers in lateral view, and a 3-angled outline in transverse view (Fig. 2A–B).</p><p>Eucomis nubigena differs from all other species of Eucomis in its ovule position and subsequent seed development that are basal as opposed to axile (Figs 2E, 3F) (Williams 2000), with no more than three ovules per locule, in having only one to two leaves (Figs 1A–C, 3A), each of which is spathulate (Figs 1A–C, 3A) rather than lorate-lanceolate, and coma bracts that are suborbicular and succulent (Figs 1D, 2A, D, 3I) rather than ovate-lanceolate and membranous.</p><p>Based on general morphological characters, phytogeography, and unpublished phylogenetic results, E. nubigena is considered to be most closely related to E. schijffii, a neo-endemic of the DMC where it is similarly restricted to the eastern escarpment edge. Our preliminary phylogenetic results based on the ycf plastidial DNA region render the genus Eucomis monophyletic with strong support and further confirm the inclusion of E. nubigena within it. The new species is evidently related to both E. schijffii and E. regia, but their relationships are weakly supported. Eucomis nubigena and E. schijffii co-occur, albeit occupying slightly different habitats (Reyneke 1976, Mathew 1989). Plants of E. nubigena grow mostly fully exposed in basaltic gravel pockets, whereas those of E. schijffii frequent wet basalt rock faces in more shaded situations. In the unpublished key of Reyneke (1972), modified by Crouch (2010), E. nubigena keys out closest to E. schijffii . However, although E. schijffii is considered a dwarf species and the new species would be similarly described as dwarf, E. nubigena is relatively diminutive in almost all morphological characteristics. The chasmogamous flowers of E. schijffii are entomophilous (carrion flies have been observed to visit the flowers), with broadly campanulate, open flowers that are unpleasantly scented and nectar-producing, whilst those of E. nubigena are cleistogamous, with closed urceolate perigones and produce neither nectar nor obvious scent. They share small appressed maroonish leaves with purplish margins, however differing in shape: those of E. nubigena are spathulate whereas those of E. schijffii are ovate (Reyneke 1976, Mathew 1989). Both species bear flowers with purple perigones, at least distally, and produce fruits that are prominently inflated when fully mature (Fig. 2D).</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03F78784FFE78347FF4DFA0B93990123	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Crouch, Neil R.;Martínez-Azorín, Mario;Cron, Glynis V.;Beaumont, Angela J.	Crouch, Neil R., Martínez-Azorín, Mario, Cron, Glynis V., Beaumont, Angela J. (2025): Eucomis nubigena (Hyacinthaceae, Hyacinthoideae), a diminutive new cleistogamous species from the Drakensberg Mountain Centre. Phytotaxa 731 (2): 115-127, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.2, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.731.2.2
