Romulea sladenii 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 : 91-93

42. Romulea sladenii M.P. de Vos

J. S. African Bot., Suppl. 9: 135 (1972); Fl. S. Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 33 (1983). — Type: de Vos 2018, South Africa, Western Cape, Matsikamma Mts. (holo-, NBG!) .

Plants 7-30 cm, stem subterranean or reaching 20 cm above ground; corms symmetrical, bellshaped with a wide circular rim of fibrils. Leaves 3-5, basal and cauline, narrowly 4-grooved, 0.5-1 mm diam.; outer bracts without visible membranous margins, inner bracts with wider colorless or brown-edged membranous margins. Flowers white with a yellow cup, unscented, tepals elliptic, 15-25 mm long; filaments 5-7 mm long, anthers 4-6 mm long. Fruiting peduncles sharply spreading. Flowering: Aug.-Sep.

Romulea sladenii is restricted to the Gifberg and Matsikamma Mountains of Western Cape Province where it grows on rocky sandstone pavement and shallow soil. Another close relative of Romulea hirsuta , R. sladenii is distinguished from other members of the alliance by the broad, lacerated basal ridge of the corm and the white flowers with a cream to yellow cup. The sharply divergent fruiting peduncles and the pink to purple outside of the tepals distinguish the species from white-flowered forms of R. triflora . The species bears a close superficial resemblance to another Gifberg endemic, R. toximontana but the corms of the two are quite different, the latter having a crescent-shaped basal ridge typical of section Ciliatae .

43. Romulea discifera J.C. Manning & Goldblatt , sp. nov.

Plantae 10-15(-20) cm altae, cormo depresso-campanulato 15-20 mm diam., foliis 3 ad 5, filiformibus in sectione transversali ovalibus 4-sulcatis, 1.2-2 mm diam., inflorescentiae bracteis exterioribus 15-28 mm longis, interioribus marginibus anguste membranaceis basem versus dilatatis, floribus flavis brunneonotatis prope basem tepalorum internorum, tubo perianthii infundibuliformi c. 5 mm longo, tepalis 25-35 × 6-10 mm, laxe patentibus, filamentis 5-6 mm longis, antheris erectis contiguis 6-7 mm longis.

TYPUS. — Goldblatt & Manning 11075, South Africa, Northern Cape, Bokkeveld Plateau, north of Nieuwoudtville , west of the road to the waterfall, 27 July 1999 (holo-, NBG!; iso-, K!, MO!, PRE!).

Plants 10-15(-20) cm high, the stem usually extending shortly above the ground, or subterranean and hidden by the leaf sheaths, extending shortly to well above the ground in fruit. Corm symmetrical, depressed campanulate, 15-20 mm diam., 5-7 mm high, the tunics woody, brown, the lower margins forming a spreading ridge, c. 2.5 mm wide, splitting into fine parallel fibrils clustered into fascicles, the tunics drawn into prominent fibers 5-10 mm long above. Leaves 3-5, the lower (1 or) 2 basal, oval in section and narrowly or more widely 4-grooved, 6-15 cm long, 1.2-2 mm diam., glabrous or minutely ciliate, cauline leaves 1 or 2, similar but shorter. Inflorescence of (1-)2-3 solitary flowers on reddish branches up to 10 cm long; outer bracts green, often flushed purple, with obscure, narrow membranous margins, 15-28 mm long, inner bracts green with narrow membranous margins widening toward the base, 12-15 mm long. Flowers cup-shaped, bright yellow with a darker yellow cup, the inner tepals with a narrow dark median line and sometimes a diffuse dark zone in the throat, the outer tepals with a dark median blotch in the throat, the reverse darkly streaked with reddish, longitudinal bands, unscented, 30-40 mm long, perianth tube funnel-shaped, c. 5 mm long, tepals oblanceolate, 25-35 × 6-10 mm. Filaments inserted near the base of the tube, free, c. 5-6 mm long, densely hairy below; anthers parallel and contiguous, yellow, 6-7 mm long. Style dividing opposite the middle of the anthers, the branches 2-3 mm long, divided for half their length. Capsules oblong-ovoid, c. 8 mm long, on suberect peduncles, about one third as long as the bracts and concealed by them; seeds angular-prismatic c. 1.5 mm long. Flowering: mid to late July, possibly in early August in wetter seasons. — Fig. 3 .

First collected by the seed merchants and plant enthusiasts Rod and Rachel SAUNDERS in the late winter of 1998, Romulea discifera is currently known from a few hectares of veld a short dis-

Manning J.C. & Goldblatt P.

tance north of Nieuwoudtville on the Bokkeveld Plateau in Northern Cape Province. Plants grow in a renosterveld community dominated by Elytropappus rhinocerotis among a dense ground cover of geophytic plants. The soil is a mixture of quartzitic sand and pale-colored clay and appears to be well drained although in particularly wet years may be waterlogged during part of the growing season. Plants are locally common and grow in dense communities. When in bloom, flowers of R. discifera form a dense carpet between clumps of bush. Plants are often mixed with a second Romulea species , R. hirta , which has similar yellow, cup-shaped flowers but this species flowers later and there is hardly any overlap in their flowering.

Romulea discifera is typical of section Hirsutae in its symmetrical, campanulate corm with circular marginal ridge forming a fringe of parallel fibrils and in its leaves without secondary vascular bundles in the ribs. The depressed, almost lenslike shape of the corm is, however, unique. It may be most closely allied to R. triflora which also has yellow flowers, sometimes with dark blotches in the throat, and suberect fruiting pedicels. This species occurs to the south, from the Olifants River valley near Citrusdal southward to Stanford and flowers from late August to October.

PARATYPE. — SOUTH AFRICA. Northern Cape: 3119 (Calvinia) north of Nieuwoudtville , Goldblatt & Manning 10692, east of road to the waterfall ( AC), 6 Aug. 1998 , in fruit (K, MO, NBG, S).

ROMULEA subg. ROMULEA sect. 4. AGGRE- GATAE M.P. de Vos

J. S. African Bot., Suppl. 9: 170 (1972).

Corm with an oblique, crescent-shaped or circular basal ridge; ridge edges fringed, the fibrils converging in clusters with the roots emerging from each cluster. Leaves usually without secondary bundles, usually with vascular girders. Chromosome number 2 n = 24, 30 or 32.

— Ser. AMOENAE

Figures

Fig. 3. — Morphology of Romulea discifera: full size, detail of the stamens and style branches, seed, and transverse section of the leaf much enlarged (Goldblatt & Manning 11075). Drawn by John MANNING.