Albuca caudata Jacq., Collectanea 4: 203 (1791).

Martinez-Azorin, Mario, Crespo, Manuel B., Dold, Anthony P. & Barker, Nigel P., 2011, The identity of Albuca caudata Jacq. (Hyacinthaceae) and a description of a new related species: A. bakeri, PhytoKeys 5, pp. 5-19 : 7-9

Albuca caudata Jacq., Collectanea 4: 203 (1791).

Neotype (here designated).

Jacquin, Ic. Pl. Rar. 2(16): 20, t. 442 (1795), ex Promontorio bonae Spei. Apud nos in caldariis floret Decembri & Januario ( Fig. 1).

Epitype (here designated).

SOUTH AFRICA. Eastern Cape: Alexandria, Addo National Park, 400 feet, 29.X.1954, S.M. Johnson 1077 (GRA).

Description.

Evergreen bulbous plants. Bulb mostly solitary and hypogeal, ovoid to oblong, up to 10 × 6 cm, usually with its wide basal plate elongated into a domed axis where the fleshy scales are attached; tunics fleshy, short and usually not reaching the top of the bulb, imbricate, persistent, papery grey or brownish in the upper part, sometimes with transversal prominent dark ridges, giving a brownish multiscaled appearance to the bulb in outline. Roots fleshy, thick and usually tuberose, white, numerous, up to 200 × 4 mm. Leaves 4-10, disposed in an apical rosette, linear-lanceolate, 15-120 × 0.5-2 cm, straight up and curving down when old, infolded, canaliculate, persistent, pale bright green to glaucous, glabrous, usually minutely papillate on nerves and margins, with a terete apex evident in young leaves. Inflorescence inclined, unilateral raceme, 11-40 cm long; peduncle 12-55 cm long; pedicels 3.5-9 cm long at base becoming smaller, up to 0.2-1 cm long near top, patent and being usually all erect; bracts ovate-lanceolate to triangular, long acuminate, 11-25 × 5-9 mm, papery white with brownish distant nerves that converge at the tips, much shorter than pedicels in the lower part of the inflorescence. Flowers erect; tepals white with a green median stripe 2-4 mm wide, sometimes with the tips yellowish; outer tepals oblong, 18-28 × 4-7 mm, apex slightly cucullate; inner tepals ovate, 15-24 × 4-10 mm, with apex strongly cucullate. Stamens all six bearing fertile anthers; outer anthers 1.5-2.5 mm long; inner anthers 3-4 mm long; outer filaments 10-16 × 1.5-2 mm, linear lanceolate to narrowly oblong, not pinched down; inner filaments 10-17 × 1.5-3 mm, linear oblong, wider and pinched in the lower half. Ovary oblong to obovate, up to 6-8 × 2-3.5 mm, stipitate, with prominent paraseptal crests that are divergent in the lower part and form three prominent ridges; style subobpyramidal or clavate, trigonous, up to 7-10 × 2 mm, stigma yellowish green. Capsule ovate, 14-20 × 10-14 mm, trigonous to subsphaerical in section, pale-brown when mature; valves splitting in the upper quarter. Seeds flat, c. 5-6 × 4-5 mm, dark brown to black, flattened and semidiscoidal, biseriate and horizontally stacked in each locule. ( Fig. 3)

Flowering time.

September to November; capsules dehiscing at the end of November and December.

Habitat.

Plants of Albuca caudata are often associated with bush-clumps, where the inclined inflorescence is supported by woody plants.

Distribution.

Currently known from Addo in the west to Grahamstown in the east, below 600 m, with an outlying population as far inland as Somerset East, reaching 900 m ( Fig. 4).

Diagnostic characters.

Albuca caudata can be easily identified by its bulb mostly solitary covered by brownish papery scales usually disposed at different heights and bearing long thick tuberose roots, its long and narrow canaliculate or infolded leaves, its inclined raceme, with usually all pedicels patent and erect, giving a unilateral appearance to the inflorescence, and its white erect flowers with a median green stripe ( Fig. 3).

Etymology.

The specific epithet ' caudata ' presumably refers to the rather pointed, tail-like leaves, although Jacquin did not specifically mention it (E.E.A. Gledhill, unpubl. ms. in NBG).

Relationships.

The recently described Albuca batteniana Hilliard & B.L. Burtt ( Hilliard and Burtt 1985) shares some morphological characters with Albuca caudata , such as the inclined scape bearing a horizontally arcuate inflorescence with erect pedicels, and the flower morphology. This species, however, differs in the coriaceous recurved much broader and flattened leaves, the longer tepals (30-42 mm long), and the structure of the bulb, being proliferous, epigeal, and composed by scales truncate at the top, disposed into a long domed axis and ending at different heights, without membranous neck ( Table 1 ).

Observations.

Albuca caudata shows some variability in the colour of the membranous bulb scales, being pale coloured with orange transversal ridges in some inland populations whilst those from the coastal areas are usually brown coloured with darker transversal ridges.

Selected specimens studied.

SOUTH AFRICA. Alexandria, 4 miles east of Sandflats, 1000 feet, 17/12/1953, E.E.A. Archibald 5431 (GRA); Eastern Cape, along road in Springs Reserve, north of Uitenhage, 39 m, 21.X.2009, A.B. Low 16732 (GRA); Addo Elephant National Park, in main Botanical Reserve, 20.X.1996, K. Johnson 241 (GRA); Alexandria, Nanaga, opposite Glen Rosa turn-off, 1100 feet, 23.X.1953, E.E.A. Archibald 5315 (GRA); Eastern Cape, Albany, Queen´s Road, 10 miles north of Grahamstown, 2000 feet, 05.X.1953, S. Johnson 774 (GRA); Eastern Cape, Albany, a few yards from Archibald 5636, Pluto´s Vale, 2000 feet, 22.IX.1954, E.E.A. Archibald 5636 (GRA); Eastern Cape, Grahamstown, c. 5 miles on Cradock road, 626 m, 11.XII.2009, M. Martínez-Azorín & A.P. Dold 85 (GRA); Eastern Cape, Redhouse, thicket west of village, 6 m, 27.XI.2009, M. Martínez-Azorín, A.P. Dold & A. Martínez-Soler 45 (GRA).