Romulea elliptica 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 : 84

25. Romulea elliptica M.P. de Vos

J. S. African Bot., Suppl. 9: 83 (1972); Fl. S. Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 22 (1983). — Type: de Vos 2226, South Africa, Western Cape, Vredenburg to Saldanha (holo-, NBG!; iso-, PRE) .

Plants 15-30 cm high, stem reaching 16 cm above ground; corm with a crescent-shaped basal ridge. Leaves 3-4, lower 2 basal, narrowly 4-grooved, 1-1.5 mm diam.; outer bracts with hardly visible membranous margins, inner bracts submembranous below with narrow white membranous margins. Flowers yellow with dark streaks in the cup, tepals elliptic, often obtuse, 18-27 mm long, outer tepals uniformly green on the outside; filaments 6-7 mm long, anthers 4-6 mm long. Fruiting peduncles erect or suberect. Flowering: Aug.

Romulea elliptica has a narrow distribution, occurring on sandy flats between Vredenburg and Saldanha Bay. As far as is currently known, only one small population still exists in a patch of undisturbed vegetation close to Vredenburg, east of Saldanha. The species can be recognized among the other yellow-flowered species of series Ciliatae with 2 basal leaves by the uniformly translucent margins of the inner bracts. The outer tepals are distinctive in being plain green on the outside with darkly flecked edges.