Romulea flexuosa Klatt

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 : 77

10. Romulea flexuosa Klatt

Abh. Naturf. Ges. Halle 15: 400 (1882); M . P . de Vos, J . S . African Bot., Suppl. 9: 66 (1972); Fl. S . Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 19 (1983). — Type: Drège 4038, South Africa, Western Cape (holo-, S) .

Plants 15-40 cm high, stem reaching 2-25 cm above ground; corm with a crescent-shaped basal ridge. Leaves 3-5, lower 2 basal, narrowly 4- grooved, 0.5 mm diam.; outer bracts with narrow membranous margins, inner bracts with wide colorless membranous margins. Flowers white or rarely pale lilac with cream to buff cup, lightly sweet-acrid scented, tepals elliptic, 25-35 mm long; filaments 6-7 mm long, anthers sagittate, 12-15 mm long with attenuate connectives extending 2.5-6 mm beyond the thecae. Fruiting peduncles curved. Flowering: May-July.

An early flowering species restricted to the western half of Western Cape Province, Romulea flexuosa is found on rocky, sandstone slopes in moist places from Lokenberg in the Bokkeveld Mountains in the north to the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the south. The species is readily recognized by the large white or rarely pale lilac flowers marked with purple lines, the lower part of the cup cream to buff, and particularly by the characteristic anther connectives which are extended into attenuate tips up to 6 mm long.