Romulea dichotoma (Thunb.) Baker

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 : 94

48. Romulea dichotoma (Thunb.) Baker

J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 16: 89 (1877) ; M. P. de Vos , J. S. African Bot., Suppl. 9: 187 (1972); Fl . S. Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 43 (1983). — Gladiolus dichotoma Thunb., Diss. Gladiolo no. 10 (1784). — Type: Thunberg s. n., South Africa, Western Cape (holo-, Herb. Thunberg 1019, UPS!) .

Plants to 35 cm high, stem reaching 4-35 cm above the ground, rarely shorter; corm with a crescent-shaped basal ridge of fibril clusters. Leaves 2-3, lowest 1 basal (rarely 2 but then lowermost shorter), narrowly or more widely 4-grooved, 1-2 mm diam.; outer bracts with narrow membranous margins, inner bracts with wide brown-speckled membranous margins. Flowers pink with yellowish cup, tepals elliptic to oblanceolate, 16-32 mm long; filaments 4-8 mm long, anthers 4-7 mm long. Fruiting peduncles spreading. Flowering: Sep.-Oct.

Romulea dichotoma occurs on sandy flats and slopes, extending along the south coast of South Africa from Stanford in Western Cape Province in the west to Humansdorp in Eastern Cape Province in the east and is most common in the George-Knysna area. It is similar to Romulea fibrosa and is easily confused with it but that species usually has a fibrous neck around the stem base, always has two basal leaves and usually bears just one or two flowers per flowering stem. The leaves of R. dichotoma are unique in the alliance in having the lateral ribs more or less reduced and are thus I-shaped in section.