Source:
SSA
Description:
Deciduous perennials. Rootstock a globose corm rooting from below, basal in origin, tunics membranous to lightly fibrous. Stem aerial, simple or branched, compressed and angled. Leaves several, lower 2 or 3 cataphylls; foliage leaves unifacial, with a definite midrib, mostly basal and forming a lax distichous fan, blades sword-shaped, plane, fairly softly textured. Inflorescence a spike, flowers loosely secund; bracts green, soft-textured, often becoming dry apically, inner usually shorter than outer, notched apically. Flowers zygomorphic, hypocrateriform, shades of pink to purple, lower tepals with darker median streaks, unscented, with nectar from septal nectaries; perianth tube cylindric, elongate. Tepals subequal, dorsal slightly larger and erect. Stamens unilateral and arcuate; filaments arising shortly below mouth of tube, exserted from tube; anthers parallel; pollen monosulcate, operculate, exine perforate. Style filiform, branches slender, undivided. Capsules globose, cartilaginous. Seeds globose, flattened at chalazal end, usually 2-4 per locule, rugulose, matte, surface colliculate. x = 15.
Distribution:
Species either a single polymorphic entity or possibly 2 or 3 cryptic species, frequent in mountain areas, extending from Mpumulanga and Swaziland through E Zimbabwe to S Tanzania in rocky sites in montane grassland. The long-tubed pink flowers are pollinated by the long-proboscid fly Prosoeca ganglbaueri (Nemestrinidae).
Classification:
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