Romulea syringodeoflora 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 : 106-107

75. Romulea syringodeoflora M.P. de Vos

Ann. Univ. Stellenbosch 28 A , 3: 74 (1952); J. S . African Bot., Suppl. 9: 287 (1972) ; Fl. S. Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 70 (1983). — Type: de Vos 1587, South Africa, Northern Cape, near Sutherland (holo-, NBG!) .

Plants 12-20 cm high, stem subterranean; corm rounded at base with curved acuminate teeth. Leaves c. 5, basal, curved, narrowly to widely 4-grooved, 1.5-2.5 mm diameter, sparsely hairy; outer bracts with narrow white membranous margins, inner bracts with white membranous margins. Flowers hypocrateriform, magenta-pink with a small yellow center edged in dark purple, unscented, tube 15-20 mm long, tepals elliptic, 10-17 mm long; filaments 4-5 mm long, anthers 4-6 mm long. Flowering: Sep.-Oct.

Romulea syringodeoflora occurs on stony shale flats and slopes in the southern Roggeveld Escarpment between Komsberg and Sutherland in Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is one of four species of Romulea with a narrow, cylindrical perianth tube and is immediately distinguished from R. hantamensis and R. stellata by its corm tunics with recurved basal teeth and from its close ally, R. albiflora , in details of the leaves and flowers. Romulea albiflora has white flowers with a somewhat longer tube and straight, densely hairy leaves while R. syringodeoflora has curved, sparsely hairy leaves and pink flowers with a small yellow centre.

76. Romulea albiflora J.C. Manning & Goldblatt , sp. nov.

Plantae 5-8(-12) cm altae, foliis plerumque caule longioribus, cormo ovoideo 8-10 mm diam., foliis filiformibus in sectione transversali ovalibus 4-sulcatis, pilosis, 1.5-2 mm diam., inflorescentiae bracteis viridibus exterioribus 18-25 mm longis, interioribus marginibus late scariosis, floribus albis saepe pallide purpureonotatis prope basem tepalorum externorum, tubo perianthii cylindrico 20-33 mm longo, tepalis 12-16(-20) × 2.5-4 mm, laxe patentibus, filamentis c. 4 mm longis, antheris erectis contiguis 6-7 mm longis atropurpureis, pollinibus rubrobrunneis.

TYPUS. — Goldblatt & Manning 10367, South Africa, Northern Cape, Roggeveld Escarpment, Farm Blomfontein, west of Middelpos , 13 Oct. 1995 (holo-, NBG!; iso-, K!, MO!, PRE!, S!, WAG!).

Plants 5-8(-12) cm high, the leaves usually somewhat longer than the stem, tending to grow in clumps, the stem subterranean with up to five branches reaching 2-5(-10) cm above the ground. Corm ovoid, asymmetric, the base rounded, the tunics split into curved, acuminate teeth below, drawn into coarse fibers above, these accumulating with age and forming a neck around the base of the stems, 8-10 mm diam. Leaves c. 5, all basal, up to twice as long as the flowering stems, narrowly 4-grooved, softly hairy throughout, 1.5- 2 mm diam. Inflorescence of up to 5 solitary flowers, outer bracts green with narrow, translucent or white membranous margins, 18-25 mm long, inner bracts with fairly broad membranous margins c. 2 mm wide, about as long as the outer. Flowers hypocrateriform, white, the tepals flushed mauve on the reverse, the inner distinctly veined, the tube streaked with broad bands of mauve opposite the outer tepals and yellow opposite the inner tepals, unscented; perianth tube cylindric, 20-33 mm long; tepals narrowly oblong, 12-16(-20) × 2.5-4 mm long, the inner slightly smaller than the outer. Filaments inserted at the mouth of the tube, c. 4 mm long, glabrous, anthers parallel and contiguous, 6-7 mm long, dark purple, the pollen reddish brown. Style dividing near the anther apices, the branches c. 2 mm long, divided to slightly below the middle. Capsules and seeds unknown. Flowering: late Sep. and Oct. — Fig. 5 .

First collected in 1983 by botanists Pauline PERRY and Dee PETERSON- JONES, Romulea albiflora is known only from a small portion of the Roggeveld Escarpment west of Middelpos in Northern Cape Province. The rocky edge of the steep escarpment rises abruptly about 600 m above the arid Tanqua-Doorn River basin and receives considerably more rainfall in the winter months than the country to the interior. The immediate escarpment area supports a remarkable number of highly local endemics, especially geophytes (e.g., Hyacinthaceae : Daubenya aurea and Lachenalia congesta ; Iridaceae : Babiana virginea , Devia xeromorpha , Gladiolus marlothii , Hesperantha teretifolia , Ixia thomasiae , Lapeirousia montana , and several species of Romulea ).

Romulea albiflora is closely allied to Romulea syringodeoflora but may be recognized by its filiform, pilose leaves and white flowers, the tepals sometimes marked near the base with a light purple mark, and perianth tube 22-30 mm long. Romulea syringodeoflora has relatively short, curved, sparsely pilose leaves that do not usually exceed the flowers and pinkish magenta flowers with a small yellow center edged in dark purple and perianth tube 17-22 mm long. The strongly falcate leaves, up to 2 mm wide, are unlike the suberect, filiform, conspicuously pilose leaves of R. albiflora which are at least twice as long as the flowers. The neck of fibers around the underground part of the stem which is so conspicuous in R. albiflora is only weakly developed in R. syringodeoflora .

PARATYPE. — SOUTH AFRICA. Northern Cape: 3119 (Calvinia) Farm Matjesfontein, 26 km W of Middelpos ( DD), Perry 3064, 28 Oct. 1983 ( MO, NBG) .

Figures

Fig. 5. — Morphology of Romulea albiflora: with transverse section of the leaf much enlarged (Goldblatt & Manning 10367). Drawn by John MANNING.