Pauridia nana (Snijman) 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 : 53-55

14. Pauridia nana (Snijman) Snijman & Kocyan (2013: 28) . Fig. 23

Bas.:— Spiloxene nana Snijman (2006: 133) . Type (holotype):— SOUTH AFRICA. Northern Cape, Nieuwoudtville, Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve (QDS: 3119AC), 773 m, 11 October 2000, W.A.J. Pretorius 589 (NBG!, isotypes K!, MO!, PRE!)

Plants 9.5–35.0 cm tall. Corm somewhat globose, 4–10 mm diam., loosely covered with fine, brown, softly fibrous tunics; fibres reticulate, free from corm base; roots arising near corm base, slender and spreading or thick and contractile. Cataphylls membranous, up to 45 mm long. Leaves 2–6, sheathing up to ca. 10–30 mm above base, suberect to somewhat arched, narrowly lorate, 35–350 × 1.5–5.0 mm, carinate, pale green, soft and thin-textured, margin entire. Inflorescences 2 or more in flower at a time, 2-flowered, shorter or longer than leaves; scape 30–150 × 0.5–2.0 mm, compressed laterally, pale green with membranous lateral edges; bracts 2, clasping pedicels for most of length, lanceolate, 10–40 × 3–4 mm, foliaceous, shallowly keeled, inconspicuously nerved, pale green, translucent-edged. Flowers pedicellate, stellate, white or rarely creamy white, occasionally flushed pink, backed with pale green in outer whorl, unscented; pedicels suberect, 35–80 × 1 mm, spreading when fruiting, pale green; tepals 6, reflexed when fully open, narrowly lanceolate, 4–7(–10) mm long, outer 1.5–2.5 mm wide and mucronate, inner 1–2 mm wide. Stamens 6, outer slightly shorter than inner, slightly spreading, yellow; filaments inserted at base of tepals, outer 0.7–1.0 mm long, inner 1.0– 1.5 mm long, both whorls shorter to as long as anthers; anthers oblong, latrorse, 1.5–2.0 mm long, apical and basal lobes slightly spreading, ca. 0.5 mm long; pollen yellow. Ovary subcylindrical to ellipsoid, 2.5–8.0(–11.0) × 0.7–2.0 mm, 3-locular, beaked distally for ca. 0.5–1.0 mm; style 0.3–0.5 mm long, white; stigma branches erect to spreading, tapering upwards from broad base, 1.2–3.0 mm long, ca. as long as stamens, yellow, densely papillose. Capsules narrowly ellipsoid, 2.5–11.0 × 1.0–2.0 mm, dehiscing irregularly along thin walls. Seeds depressed-ellipsoid, 0.53 × 0.43 mm; testa lustrous black, with ca. 15 longitudinal rows of closely set, transversally widened cells, outer periclinal cell walls with a central, conical, raised papilla. Flowering period: mid-September–late October.

Distribution and habitat:— Pauridia nana is known only from the Bokkeveld Escarpment near Nieuwoudtville, Northern Cape ( Fig. 24A ), where it was first collected by Louisa Bolus in 1930. Populations, often of as many as 500 plants, are found on relatively moist and cool southwest-facing slopes. Individuals are usually massed together in shallow soil under damp, shaded rock ledges at elevations of 730–770 meters.

This range-restricted species, classified as Rare according to the Red List categories developed specifically for plant conservation in South Africa ( Raimondo et al. 2009), is fortunately protected in Northern Cape within the Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve.

Diagnostic features:—As the epithet suggests, Pauridia nana is a slender plant of delicate habit, with narrow (1.5–5.0 mm wide), pale green leaves. With tepals only 4–7(–10) mm long, the flowers are small, mostly white or rarely creamy white, backed with pale green in the outer whorl, and sometimes flushed with pink. Its affinities lie primarily with P. pusilla which is similar in size and habit, but easily distinguished by staminal filaments that are adnate to the style and by dark red anthers and stigma.

When first described ( Snijman 2006), P. nana was also thought to be allied to P. scullyi , but the unilocular ovary of this species now suggests otherwise. The short apical ovary beak of P. nana rather suggests affinities with P. alba , P. aquatica and P. umbraticola , all of which have naked corms, or at most a loose tuft of fibres from the apex in P. alba . Of these, only P. umbraticola , which is endemic to the mountains adjacent to the Olifants River Valley, has delicate, thin-textured leaves like P. nana , but the flowers are yellow and slightly larger than in P. nana (tepals 7–12 mm versus 4–7(–10) mm long), as are the filaments (outer 2.5–3.0 mm and inner 3.0– 3.5 mm long versus outer 0.7–1.0 mm and inner 1.0– 1.5 mm long) and the stigma branches (3.0– 4.5 mm versus 1.2–3.0 mm long).

Additional specimens examined:— SOUTH AFRICA. Northern Cape: stream feeding waterfall ca. 10 miles out of Nieuwoudtville (QDS: 3119 AC), September 1930, L. Bolus ( BOL 19597!) ; Oorlogskloof trail near Nieuwoudtville (QDS: 3119 AC), 1 October 1991, Esterhuysen s.n. ( NBG!) ; 9 km SW of Nieuwoudtville on Groot Tuin 653, near hiking trail (QDS: 3119 AC), 27 August 2004, Helme 3075 ( NBG!) ; Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve (QDS: 3119 AC), 11 September 1995, W.A.J. Pretorius 279 ( NBG!) ; Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve, near Eland se Kliphuis (QDS: 3119 AC), 18 October 2001, Rourke 2218 ( NBG!, PRE!) ; Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve (QDS: 3119 AC), 24 October 2001, Snijman 1865a ( NBG!, PRE!) ; Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve, Annex Uitkomst 797, ca. 425 m NE of Dolfontein camp, on a steep SSW-facing slope under a damp, shaded rock ledge (QDS: 3119 AC), 17 September 2005, R.C. Turner 1374 ( NBG!; PRE!) ; Lokenburg, under overhanging rocks (QDS: 3119 CA), 28 August 1958, Acocks 19725 ( NBG!, PRE!) ; Uitkomst Farm , SW of Nieuwoudtville (QDS: 3119 CA), 27 September 1970, W.F. Barker 10730 ( NBG!) ; Farm Driefontein , 18 km Sof Nieuwoudtville (QDS: 3119 CA), 8 September 1992, Goldblatt & Manning 9420 ( NBG!, PRE!) .

Figures

FIGURE 23. Pauridia nana. A, whole plant; B, corm; C, leaf in transverse section; D, flower; E, stamens, style and stigma branches; F, capsule; G, seed. Scale bars A, B = 5 mm; C = 2 mm; D = 2.5 mm; E = 1 mm; F = 3 mm; G = 0.2 mm. Drawn by John Manning [A–C from Pretorius 589 (NBG!); D–G from Rourke 2218 (NBG!)].

FIGURE 24. Distribution maps for A, Pauridia nana from Northern Cape; B, P. pusilla from Western Cape, South Africa.