Romulea jugicola M.P. de Vos

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 : 94-95

49. Romulea jugicola M.P. de Vos

J. S. African Bot., Suppl. 9: 185 (1972); Fl. S. Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 41 (1983). — Type: Acocks 20592, South Africa, Western Cape, Little Karoo , 31 km SE of Dysseldorp (holo-, PRE!; iso-, K!, M) .

Plants c. 30 cm, stem reaching 4-15 cm above ground, often ciliate on the angles; corm with a crescent-shaped basal ridge of fibril clusters. Leaves 2-4, lowest 1 basal, narrowly 4-grooved, conspicuously ciliate or hairy, c. 1 mm diam.; outer bracts with narrow membranous margins, inner bracts with brown-speckled membranous margins. Flowers orange with yellow cup, tepals elliptic to obovate, 18-30 mm long; filaments 6- 7 mm long, anthers 4-6 mm long. Fruiting peduncles spreading. Flowering: Aug.

Romulea jugicola grows in stony and clay soils in renosterveld in southern Western Cape Province where it extends from Potberg in the south into the Little Karoo. It is closely related to R. dichotoma and is distinguished from it by the orange flowers and by its typical, 4-grooved leaves. In R. dichotoma the lateral ridges are more or less reduced and the leaves are thus I-shaped in transverse section. The leaves in both species are sometimes conspicuously ciliate, especially commonly in R. jugicola .