Pauridia maximiliani (Schltr.) Snijman & Kocyan (2013: 28)

Snijman, Deirdre A., 2014, A taxonomic revision of the genus Pauridia (Hypoxidaceae) in southern Africa, Phytotaxa 182 (1), pp. 1-114 : 48

11. Pauridia maximiliani (Schltr.) Snijman & Kocyan (2013: 28) . Fig. 20

Bas.:— Hypoxis maximiliani Schlechter (1900: 89) ≡ Ianthe maximiliani (Schltr.) Williams (1901: 292) ≡ Spiloxene maximiliani (Schltr.) Garside (1936: 268) . Type (lectotype designated by Snijman & Kocyan 2013: 28):— SOUTH AFRICA. [Western Cape], Olifantsrivier, 300 ft [91 m], 2 July 1896, R. Schlechter 7994 (BOL!, isolectotypes E, GRA!, K! No. K000256006 [image], NH!, PRE!, ZT!)

Plants 9–24 cm tall. Corm somewhat globose, 5–10 mm diam., fibreless, outer layers slightly brittle, dark brown; roots growing from corm distally, often tangled around corm. Cataphylls membranous, up to 15 mm long. Leaves 2–5, not sheathing at base, spreading to arched, lorate, 70–250 × 4–20 mm, attenuate proximally, tapering evenly upwards, carinate, pale green, thin-textured and brittle, margin minutely papillate. Inflorescences 1 or 2 in flower at a time, 2(3)-flowered, shorter or rarely as long as leaves; scape up to 100 × 1.5–3.0 mm, ancipitous, pale green, edges mostly hyaline; bracts 2, loosely clasping pedicels proximally or for most of length, lanceolate, 17–45 × 4–5 mm, more or less keeled, pale green, thin-textured, margin somewhat translucent. Flowers pedicellate, stellate, yellow, backed with green in outer whorl, unscented; pedicels spreading, more so in fruit, 13–45 × 1.0– 1.5 mm, compressed, pale green; tepals 6, ovate-subacute, 7–9 mm long, outer 3–4mm wide, minutely mucronate, inner 2.0– 2.5mm wide. Stamens 6, suberect proximally, spreading distally, equal or outer slightly shorter than inner, yellow; filaments 2.5–3.0 mm long, more or less as long as anthers, adnate to style for up to ca. 1.5 mm; anthers oblong, latrorse, ca. 2.5 × 0.7 mm, basal lobes 0.5 mm long; pollen yellow. Ovary elongated, usually uniformly narrow, trigonous, 13–30 × 1.5–2.0 mm, 1-locular, with 3 parietal placentae; style ca. 1.5 mm long; stigma branches erect, oblanceolate, ca. 3.5 × 0.7 mm, unequal, as long as or slightly exceeding stamens, yellow, with prominent basal lobes, up to 1 mm long, spreading between filaments, densely papillose. Capsules narrowly trigonous, up to 30 × 3 mm, dehiscence longitudinal close to septa. Seeds depressed ellipsoid, 0.5 × 0.4 mm; testa brownish black, of transversally widened cells, arranged in ca. 24 longitudinal ribs, outer periclinal cell walls smoothly convex. Flowering period: August–September.

Distribution and habitat:— Pauridia maximiliani is endemic to the Olifants River Valley, south of Clanwilliam, Western Cape ( Fig. 19B ), where it is found in shaded, moist overhangs of sandstone rocks. The species is presently known from less than seven localities, all within a few kilometers of each other. Because of ongoing habitat loss, due to the damming of the Olifants River and the burgeoning rooibos tea industry, the species is currently listed according to the current IUCN criteria as Endangered ( Raimondo et al. 2009).

Diagnostic features:— Pauridia maximiliani is a distinctive species, easily recognized by the strongly compressed, two-edged scape, by the narrow, elongated, sharply three-cornered ovary and the adnation of the staminal filaments to the style. Furthermore, the ovary is unilocular throughout, with parietal placentation, and the fruit reaches up to 30 mm long at maturity, exceeding all other species within Pauridia . Unlike the circumscissile fruit dehiscence in the majority of species the capsule of P. maximiliani opens septifragally, with long slits developing close to the septa and extending far down the narrow capsule. In the absence of flowers and fruits, the plants can be identified by the curved, pale green leaves, up to five in number, that are unusually brittle when handled.

The only other species in which all six staminal filaments are adnate to the style is P. pusilla from the Gifberg and Matsikamma Mountains to the north of Clanwilliam. In every feature the plants of P. pusilla are diminutive in comparison to those of P. maximiliani and the stigma is maroon rather than plain yellow.

Other species distinguished by an elongated, narrow ovary, up to five times or more longer than wide, are P. alba , P. aquatica , P. nana and P. umbraticola , but unlike P. maximiliani these have a predominantly three-locular ovary. The septa in P. alba and P. aquatica , however, have the habit of being incompletely fused distally, a condition which becomes more pronounced after anthesis.

P. maximiliani is probably most closely allied to P. scullyi from Namaqualand with which it shares the derived, unilocular ovary, thin-textured leaves and broad inflorescence bracts. Unlike P. maximiliani , the inflorescence in P. scullyi may have two to as many as four or five flowers, the ovary is consistently shorter (3.5–10 mm long) and capsule dehiscence is circumscissile.

Etymology:—This species is named after Max Schlechter, who is credited with having first pointed out the plants to his brother, Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter, who described the species in 1900.

Additional specimens examined:— SOUTH AFRICA. Western Cape: in collibus pone Rondegat , 400 ft [122 m] (QDS: 3218 BD), 9 August 1897, Schlechter 10790 ( BOL!, PRE!, ZT!) ; Farm Klein Remhoogte (QDS: 3218 BD), 10 August 1984, Snijman 815 ( NBG!) ; along road to Cederberg Mtns from Farm Kriedoukranz (QDS: 3218BD), 10 September 2007, Snijman 2124 ( NBG!) ; Ebank of lower reaches of Clanwilliam Dam (QDS: 3218 BD) , 10 September 2007, Snijman 2125 ( NBG!) ; 9 miles [14.5 km] Sof Clanwilliam on old road to Citrusdal (QDS: 3218 BD) , 5 September 1966, Thompson 211 ( PRE!) .

Figures

FIGURE 19. Distribution maps for A, Pauridia scullyi from Northern Cape; B, P. maximiliani from Western Cape, South Africa.

FIGURE 20. Pauridia maximiliani. Snijman 2124 (NBG!) from the Olifants River Valley, Western Cape, South Africa.