Romulea komsbergensis 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 : 102

65. Romulea komsbergensis M.P. de Vos

Ann. Univ. Stellenbosch, 28 A , 3: 69 (1952); J. S . African Bot., Suppl. 9: 219 (1972) ; Fl. S. Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 56 (1983). — Type: de Vos 1582, South Africa, Northern Cape, Sutherland, north of Komsberg Pass (holo-, NBG!) .

Plants 12-30 cm high, stem subterranean; corm rounded at base with curved acuminate teeth. Leaves 5-8, basal, narrowly 4-grooved, c. 1 mm diam.; outer bracts submembranous below with wide brownish membranous margins and apex, inner bracts with wide brownish membranous margins. Flowers magenta with a narrow blue band around the yellow cup which is brown at the base, unscented, tepals obovate-cuneate, 15-28 mm long; filaments 4-5 mm long, anthers 3-5 mm long, pollen brown or rust-colored or rarely yellow. Fruiting peduncles recurved and later coiled. Flowering: Aug.-Sep. — Fig. 2H .

Romulea komsbergensis is restricted to the Roggeveld Escarpment near Sutherland. Plants grow on seasonally inundated clay flats and rocky pavement or along watercourses. Closely allied to Romulea atrandra , R. komsbergensis is distinguished by the brown base of the floral cup, bracts with very broad, membranous margins and brown or rust-red (rarely yellow), slightly coiled anthers. Romulea komsbergensis was until recently known only from the area immediately north of Komsberg Pass, a short distance south of Sutherland. Here plants have deep pink flowers with a pale cup and each tepal is marked with a dark central band outlined with a violet zone on the outer margin. The violet anthers contain reddish brown pollen and the style divides at the apex of the filament column. Populations recently collected some 60 km north of Sutherland along the escarpment west of Middelpos appear to be the same species but are readily distinguished by an elongate style that divides c. 5 mm beyond the anther apices. In other respects the flowers seem identical in both color of the perianth and the anthers and pollen. The significance of the different style lengths in the northern and southern populations of R. komsbergensis is uncertain, although it is at least clear that self-pollination cannot readily occur in long-styled plants but is possible in the short-styled plants. Intraspecific variation in style length is also known in R. tortuosa where populations from the south of the range of the species have the style dividing below the anther apices whereas those from the Bokkeveld Plateau to the north sometimes have the style dividing c. 3 mm beyond the anther apices ( DE VOS 1972).

ADDITIONAL SPECIMENS EXAMINED. — SOUTH AFRICA. Northern Cape:3119 (Calvinia) Roggeveld Escarpment west of Middelpos, Rooiwal road, in waterlogged meadow (DD), Goldblatt & Manning 10301 (MO, NBG).

Figures

Fig. 2. — Flowers of Romulea species: A, R. tabularis; B, R. saldanhensis; C, R. tortuosa; D, R. sabulosa; E, R. eximia; F, R. sulphurea; G, R. namaquensis; H, R. komsbergensis.