Pauridia etesionamibensis (U.Müll.-Doblies et al. )

Snijman, Deirdre A., 2014, A taxonomic revision of the genus Pauridia (Hypoxidaceae) in southern Africa, Phytotaxa 182 (1), pp. 1-114 : 21-23

1. Pauridia etesionamibensis (U.Müll.-Doblies etal. 2011: 320) Snijman & Kocyan (2013: 27). Fig. 6

Bas.:— Spiloxene etesionamibensis U.Müll.-Doblies , Mark.Ackermann, Weigend & D.Müll.-Doblies. Type (holotype):— NAMIBIA. Farm Spitskop (LUS 111) [QDS: 2716DC], 25 September 1977, Merxmüller & Giess 32268 (M! [image], isotype WIND!)

Plants 7–15 cm tall. Corm more or less ovoid, 7–14 mm diam., covered with several fibrous tunics; fibres finely herringbone-patterned, brown, free from disc-like remnants of old corms, truncate distally; roots growing from corm proximally. Cataphyll membranous, up to 22 mm long. Leaves 3–6, sometimes sheathing for up to 25 mm from base, spreading to pendant, linear to narrowly lorate, often curved, 35–310 × 2–9 mm, attenuate proximally, tapering evenly upwards, more or less carinate, pale green, usually flaccid, margin smooth. Inflorescences usually 2 in flower at a time, 2(3)-flowered, shorter than leaves; scape up to 70 × ca. 1.5 mm, somewhat compressed, green; bracts 2, clasping pedicels in lower half, lanceolate, 10–26 × 3–5 mm, keeled, pale green, thin-textured, margin translucent. Flowers pedicellate, stellate, white or pale pink, with an orange-yellow eye or dark pink central ring, backed with green and sometimes tinged with wine-red in outer whorl; pedicels spreading, 15–70 × ca. 1 mm, green to pinkish; tepals 6, elliptical, 6–10(–17) mm long, outer 3.2–5.0 mm wide, minutely mucronate, inner 2.0– 3.5 mm wide. Stamens 6, suberect, outer slightly shorter than inner, yellow; filaments inserted on raised ovary dome away from tepals, outer 1.5–3.5 mm long, inner 2–3 mm long, equalling or exceeding anthers; anthers oblong, latrorse, 1.7–3.6(4.2) × 0.7 mm, basal lobes up to 0.5 mm long; pollen yellow. Ovary broadly obconical, 2–4 × 2–3 mm, 3-locular, dome convex, minutely papillate; style yellow, column 1.0–2.0 mmlong; stigma branches suberect, oblong-sagittate, 1.7–4.5 × 0.3–0.5 mm, slightly shorter than stamens, papillose, often with 3 channeled basal lobes up to 0.5 mm long, sometimes spreading between filaments. Capsules broadly obconical, ca. 3–4 × 3.5 mm, dehiscence circumscissile, placental ridges remaining contiguous centrally. Seeds ovoid, 0.6–0.7 × 0.5 mm; testa shiny, black. Flowering period: (June–)August–September(–November), flowers remain open day and night.

Distribution and habitat:—When first described by Müller-Doblies et al. (2011), Pauridia etesionamibensis was regarded as endemic to the winter rainfall region of southern Namibia, on the mountains inland of Rosh Pinah. Subsequent to its initial discovery by Franz Sales Erni in 1938, additional collections have been made on the Oemsberg and Rosyntjieberg in the Richtersveld, extending the distribution into South Africa, Northern Cape ( Fig. 7A ). Populations of P. etesionamibensis are small and localized, most often on steep, rocky slopes or in crevices of sheer cliffs, where they occupy shaded, seasonally damp places in quartzitic or dolomitic soils, although small, isolated clumps of plants are occasionally also found at the base of large rock outcrops.

Diagnostic features:— Pauridia etesionamibensis can be recognized by the delicate, often flaccid leaves and the two-flowered inflorescence with two lanceolate bracts which are similar in texture to the leaves. The white or pink flowers are distinguished by a contrasting orange-yellow eye or dark pink central ring and an ovary with a raised, minutely papillate apical dome that bears both stamen whorls a short distance from the tepals. The corm is covered by brown, unusually fine, herringbone-patterned fibrous tunics that separate from the old, disc-like corms which remain temporarily attached at the base.

Discussion:—In southern Africa the only other species in which the ovary has a broad, raised apical dome that carries the stamens is Pauridia pygmaea , an easily overlooked dwarf species from Western Cape. Provisionally this unique feature is taken to reflect a close relationship between P. etesionamibensis and P. pygmaea . Other genera in which closely related species exhibit distribution patterns with a huge disjunction between the Gariep and the southwestern Cape centres are Cyrtanthus herrei (F.M.Leight.) R.A.Dyer (1959: 1281) (Amaryllidaceae) which is sister to the southwestern Cape C. carneus Lindley (1831: 1462) , Amaryllis paradisicola Snijman in Snijman & Williamson (1998: 193) which is sister to the Western Cape A. belladonna Linnaeus (1753: 293) , Moraea gariepensis Goldblatt (1986: 48) (Iridaceae) which is sister to the Core Cape-centred M. ramosissima (L.f.) Druce (1914: 636) , and Trachyandra adamsonii (Compton) Obermeyer (1958: 720) (Asphodelaceae) and Walleria gracilis (Salisb.) S.Carter (1962: 189) (Tecophilaeaceae) , both having disjunct populations in the Richtersveld and Western Cape ( Goldblatt etal. 2002, Manning 1990, Manning etal. 2001, Snijman & Meerow 2010).

Merxmüller (1969), in his conspectus of plants of Namibia, regarded these Namibian plants as Spiloxene scullyi (now P. scullyi ), based on their apparent similarity in habit and preferred habitat. P. scullyi , however, has naked corms and yellow flowers with a unilocular ovary. Remarkably, populations of both species are partly sympatric on the Rosyntjieberg, Richtersveld, where they can be found growing in the same rock crevices.

Additional specimens examined:— NAMIBIA. Rosh Pinah District , Numeis (QDS: 2716 DC), 2 September 2000, Bruyns 8833 ( NBG!) ; Farm Spitzkop , LU 111, in deep kloof with waterfall (QDS: 2716 DC), 18 September 1973, Giess 13055 ( WIND!) ; Farm Spitzkop , LU 111 (QDS: 2716 DC), 15 June 1976, Giess & Müller 14410 ( WIND!) ; Farm Spitzkop , kloof ca. 3 km Sof farm houses (QDS: 2716 DC), 8 August 2000, Goldblatt & Manning 11337 ( NBG!) ; Farm Spitzkop , LUS 111 (QDS: 2716 DC), 25 September 1981, Müller & Horn 1596 ( WIND!) ; Rosh Pinah District , NW of beacon, Sonberg (QDS: 2716 DD), 3 September 2000, Bruyns 8853 ( NBG!) ; Namuskluft , NW corner near Rosh Pinah (QDS: 2716 DD), August 1981, Lavranos & Pehlemann 19975 ( WIND!) ; Konsatienaberg (QDS: 2716 DD), 6 July 2007, Van Jaarsveld 21080 ( NBG!) .

SOUTH AFRICA. Northern Cape: Richtersveld, Rosyntjieberg , neck Nof Lelieshoek (QDS: 2817 AC), 1060 m, 30 August 1977, Oliver, Tölken & Venter 295 ( BOL!, K!, MO!, NBG!, PRE!) ; Richtersveld, Rosyntjieberg , kloof on N side above fountain (QDS: 2817 AC), 800 m, 30 August 1977, Oliver, Tölken & Venter 308 ( NBG!) ; N foot of Rosyntjieberg (QDS: 2817 AC), 650 m, 30 August 1977, Thompson & le Roux 218 ( NBG!) ; Richtersveld, N of Eksteenfontein, towards summit of Oemsberg (QDS: 2817 AC), 25 November 1991, G. & F. Williamson 4482 (NBG!); Richtersveld National Park , N Oemsberg (QDS: 2817 AC) , September 1993, G. & F. Williamson 5286 ( NBG!) ; Richtersveld National Park , Paradyskloof (QDS: 2817 AC) , September 1995, G. & F. Williamson 5738 ( NBG!) . Inexact locality: Sof Aus and Witputs, October 1938, F. Erni sub B.H. 31845 ( BOL!) .

Figures

FIGURE 6. Pauridia etesionamibensis. Oliver, Tõlken & Venter 295 (NBG!) collected in Richtersveld, Northern Cape, South Africa.

FIGURE 7. Distribution maps for A, Pauridia etesionamibensis from Namibia and Northern Cape, South Africa; B, P. pygmaea from Western Cape, South Africa.