Source:
SSA
Description:
Low, compact, densely branched shrublets, or tufted perennials; main roots tuberous. Leaves decussate, crowded, slightly connate, sickle-shaped, dull-green and bearing a prominent tooth or hump on lower distal surface ( R. dolabriforme), or flat, brighter green, white-margined, boat-shaped ( R. rhomboideum); epidermis +/- smooth with superficial stomata, outer epidermal walls thick, with a crystal layer, central water tissue milky-white as in Hereroa. Flowers 1-3, up to +/- 40 mm in diameter, on dichotomously branched, bracteate, long, persistent peduncles; opening in afternoon or evening. Sepals 5, subequal, lanceolate. Petals +/- 3-seriate, linear, yellow, reddish on back towards tips. Stamens with glabrous or bearded filaments. Nectary of 5 separate crenulate glands. Ovary flat on top; placentas parietal; stigmas 5, filiform. Fruit a 5-locular capsule, valves with high rims; close to Mitrophyllum type but with bipartite, flat, large closing bodies; locules deep; covering membranes complete with closing ledges at distal lower surfaces; expanding keels mostly basally separate; valve wings very narrow. Seeds ovoid, brown to dark brown. F lowering in spring and early summer. D istinguishing characters: tufted perennials; leaves sickle- or boat-shaped; fruit with bipartite closing bodies.
Distribution:
Species 5, this eastern Cape genus is practically confined to the subtropical thicket vegetation around Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth, and further afield near Graaff-Reinet in the Great Karoo, an outlying population has been recorded from the southeastern corner of the Northern Cape.
Classification:
Add new comment