Pauridia canaliculata (Garside) Snijman & Kocyan (2013: 26)

Snijman, Deirdre A., 2014, A taxonomic revision of the genus Pauridia (Hypoxidaceae) in southern Africa, Phytotaxa 182 (1), pp. 1-114 : 103-104

27. Pauridia canaliculata (Garside) Snijman & Kocyan (2013: 26) . Fig. 3J

Bas.:— Spiloxene canaliculata Garside (1942: 249) . Type (holotype):— SOUTH AFRICA. [Western Cape], roadside near stream between Darling and Yzerfontein, 18 September 1932, Garside 4211 ( BOL!)

Plants 14–39 cm tall. Corm somewhat depressed ovoid, 9–20 mm diam., covered with finely reticulate. dark brown fibrous tunics; fibres dense, free from basal disc, terminating in a ring of short bristles around neck; roots arising from corm base. Cataphylls membranous, up to 15 mm long. Leaves 2–5, sheathing at base up to 6 cm, spreading to recurved, linear, 190–350 × 1.5–3.5 mm, attenuate distally, often flexuous in distal ⅓, becoming more marked on drying, canaliculate, often inrolled towards apex, somewhat coriaceous, margin sometimes finely toothed. Inflorescences 1 in flower at a time, 1-flowered, shorter to slightly longer than leaves; scape 50–165 × 1–2 mm, subterete, reddish green; bract 1, incompletely sheathing pedicel to just below tip, linear-lanceolate, involute, 55–110 mm long, bluntly keeled, tapering to a linear, recurved tip, green, somewhat coriaceous. Flower pedicellate, stellate, orange or rarely yellowish, with a deep brownish purple, glaucous, non-iridescent centre, backed with pale green and striped reddish on midveins and edges, unscented; pedicels suberect, deflexing after anthesis then becoming erect in fruit, 80–150 × 1–2 mm, somewhat compressed, reddish green or green; tepals 6, narrowly elliptic, 24–49 mm long, adaxial surface minutely papillate proximally, outer 5–11 mm wide, prominently mucronate, inner 4–10 mm wide. Stamens 6, suberect to spreading, subequal; filaments inserted on ovary rim, tapering upwards from a broad base, 1–2 mm long, much shorter than anthers, brownish maroon; anthers linear, latrorse, 6–12 × 1 mm, orange-yellow, basal lobes up to 0.5 mm long; pollen yellow. Ovary narrowly obconical, 11–30 × 2.5–4.0 mm, 3-locular; style ca. 1.5 mm long, brownish maroon; stigma branches erect, linear, 4.5–11.0 × 1 mm, ca. shorter than to equalling stamens, orange-yellow, densely papillose. Capsule narrowly obconical, leathery, up to 30 × 5–7 mm, dehiscence circumscissile. Seeds cylindrical-arcuate or J-shaped, 0.99 × 0.49 mm; testa shiny black, rugose, covered by transverse to reticulate bands separated by deep pits, outer periclinal cell walls elongated, convex. Flowering period: mid-August–September(–early October).

Distribution and habitat:— Garside (1942) described Pauridia canaliculata as widespread and frequent in the Swartland, southwestern Cape, between the Malmesbury District and the outskirts of Cape Town, Western Cape ( Fig. 41B ). Today much of this area has been extensively transformed by agriculture and urban development, so the species is currently Red-listed as Endangered ( Raimondo et al. 2009). Extant populations are found in seasonally wet places and marshes amongst renosterveld and fynbos, where they occupy loamy, sandy soils derived from rocks of the Cape Granite Suite.

Diagnostic features:— Pauridia canaliculata is superficially so like the highly variable P. capensis that the differences between the plants went unnoticed until Garside (1942) brought them to the fore. As the name suggests, the outer leaves of P. canaliculata are smoothly canaliculate and without a prominent midrib, thus differing from P. capensis which has carinate leaves characterized by a prominent midrib on the abaxial surface, at least distally. Even though the flowers of P. capensis vary hugely in colour and markings they never approach the diagnostic markings found in P. canaliculata . These form a non-iridescent, glaucous, brownish purple centre against orange or rarely deep yellow tepals. Other features distinguishing P. canaliculata are the uniquely J-shaped seeds and the heavily rugose testa. In contrast, the seeds of all other Pauridia species are ovoid to globose, with the testa ranging from colliculate to tuberculate, studded or rarely covered with blunt trichomes.

Discussion:— Garside (1942) postulated that the variation in specimens collected by W.F. Purcell on Bergvliet Farm, Cape Peninsula, in 1917 and 1918 reflected hybridization between Pauridia canaliculata and P. capensis . Unfortunately, populations of P. canaliculata on the Cape Peninsula are now believed to be extinct and the putative hybrids in the area have not been seen again. The richly coloured large flowers make P. canaliculata one of the most beautiful species in the genus. Despite its striking appearance the earliest collections of P. canaliculata date back only to 1917, even though botanical exploration of the southwestern Cape commenced as long ago as the seventeenth century.

Additional specimens examined:— SOUTH AFRICA. Western Cape: Langebaan, Akkers Farm (QDS: 3318 AA) , 16 August 1966, Barker 10404 ( NBG!) ; Malmesbury District, Koperfontein (QDS: 3318 AB) , 3 September 1944, Compton 15951 ( NBG!) ; between Hopefield and Koperfontein (QDS: 3318 AB) , September 1944, Lewis 1464 ( SAM!) ; Yzerfontein (QDS: 3318 AC) , 21 August 1938, Compton 7469 ( NBG!) ; river bank near Groot Post Farm, Darling (QDS: 3318 AD) , 26 August 1937, Garside 4841 ( BOL!) , 26 August 1937, Garside 4842 ( BOL) ; Darling, Tienie Versveld Wildflower Reserve (QDS: 3318 AD) , 12 October 2005, Pekeur & Nurrish MSBP 1777 ( NBG!) ; Darling Flora Reserve (QDS: 3318 AD) , 24 August 1956, Rycroft 1986 ( NBG!) ; Darling, Tienie Versveld Wildflower Reserve (QDS: 3318 AD) , 3 October 1996, Snijman 1563 ( NBG!) ; ibidem, 22 October 1996, Snijman 1569 ( K!, NBG!, PRE!) ; Farm Waylands, Soutskirts of Darling (QDS: 3318 AD) , 27 August 2006, Snijman 2051 ( NBG!) ; Mamre Road , 23 miles [37 km] from Cape Town (QDS: 3318 BC) , 14 August 1946, Compton 18142 ( NBG!, PRE!) ; near Mamre Road Station (QDS: 3318 BC) , 15 August 1939, Garside 4950 ( BOL!) ; Mamre hills (QDS: 3318 CB) , 12 September 1945, Barker 3840 ( NBG!) ; ibidem, 22 September 1942, Compton 13768 ( NBG!) ; ibidem, 22 September 1943, Compton 14931 ( NBG!) ; Uitspan — Kalabaskraal (QDS: 3318 DA) , 12 August 1969, Thompson 739 ( NBG!) ; Cape Peninsula , Bergvliet Farm (QDS: 3418 AB) ; ibidem, September 1917, Purcell s.n. ( SAM 52052!) ; ibidem, 17 August 1918, Purcell s.n. ( SAM 91247!) . Inexact localities : Cape Town to Malmesbury , 6 September 1973, Montgomery 496 ( NBG!) ; ibidem, Montgomery 505 ( NBG!) ; Malmesbury road, near Cape Town , August 1939, Salter 3547 ( BOL!) .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Flower diversity in Pauridia. A, P. trifurcillata; B, P. umbraticola; C, P. pusilla; D, P. longituba; E, P. linearis; F, P. gracilipes subsp. speciosa; G, P. curculigoides; H, P. monophylla; I, P.capensis; J, P. canaliculata; K, P. alticola. Photographs by J.C. Paterson-Jones.

FIGURE 41. Distribution maps for A, Pauridia capensis from Northern, Western and Eastern Cape; B, P. canaliculata from Western Cape, South Africa.