Romulea amoena Schltr. ex Bég.

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 : 93

45. Romulea amoena Schltr. ex Bég.

Bot. Jahrb. Syst 38: 334 (1907); M . P . de Vos , J . S . African Bot., Suppl. 9: 194 (1972); Fl. S . Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 37 (1983). — Type: Schlechter 10896, South Africa, Northern Cape, Bokkeveld Mts. , Papkuilsfontein , (holo-, G; iso-, BM, BOL!, GRA, K, MO!, P, PRE!, S, Z) .

Plants 5-20 cm high, stem subterranean or reaching 10 cm above ground; corms symmetrical, bell-shaped with a circular ridge of fibril clusters. Leaves 3-4, usually all basal, narrowly 4-grooved, c. 1 mm diam.; outer bracts with narrow or scarcely visible membranous margins, inner bracts with wide colorless or brown-streaked membranous margins. Flowers deep rose-pink to red with black blotches and sometimes stripes in a cream or yellow cup, tepals elliptic to oblanceolate, 18-35 mm long; filaments 3-5 mm long, anthers 8-10 mm long. Flowering: Aug.-Sep.

Romulea amoena is a striking plant occurring in sandy soils, mostly in rocky places in the Bokkeveld Mts. south of Nieuwoudtville. The large, brilliant red flowers with a cream cup recall those of several other red-flowered species of the Bokkeveld escarpment. Romulea amoena is unique in section Aggregatae in its symmetrical, bell-shaped corm and all other members of the section have oblique corms with a crescentshaped basal ridge. It is allied to R. sanguinalis in flower colour, leaf anatomy and cytology. Both R. amoena and R. sanguinalis are anomalous in the section in their lack of vascular girders in the leaves and in their chromosome number, suggesting that they be placed in a separate series of section Aggregatae .

— Ser. AGGREGATAE