Romulea gigantea Bég.

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 : 75

5. Romulea gigantea Bég.

Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 38: 333 (1907); M . P . de Vos, J . S . African Bot., Suppl. 9: 117 (1972); Fl. S . Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 37 (1983). — Type: Rust 622, South Africa, Western Cape, Riversdale (holo-, B) .

Plants mostly 10-20 cm high, stem subterranean or reaching 20 cm above ground; corm with a crescent-shaped basal ridge, with narrow teeth sharply bent over at the tips. Leaves 4-6, lower 2 basal, narrowly 4-grooved, 1-3 mm diam.; outer bracts with hardly visible membra- nous margins, inner bracts with wide, brownedged membranous margins. Flowers white, lilac or blue with greenish yellow cup, tepals elliptic, 10-15 mm long; filaments 3-7 mm long, anthers 3-4 mm long. Fruiting peduncles curved, later erect. Flowering: Sep.-Oct.

Romulea gigantea extends along the southern Cape coast from Kleinmond in the west to Port Alfred in the east and occurs in marshy or seasonally wet sites. The affinities of R. gigantea are uncertain but the narrow corm ridge cut into fine teeth is reminiscent of that of some species of subgenus Romulea sect. Autumnales and we place it here.