The flowering plants of South Africa; vol. 3Pole Evans, I. B. (Illtyd Buller)
Science
The flowering plants of South Africa; vol. 3
Pole Evans, I. B. (Illtyd Buller)
Plants -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Plants -- South Africa -- Pictorial works -- Periodicals
The first species of this interesting genus was brought to the notice of
botanists in 1874 by Sir Henry Barkly, who sent specimens to Kew, where
it flowered the following year. Since then other species have come to
light, and we now know of seven species of the genus occurring in the
desert regions of the Cape Province and Namaqualand.
The specimen figured was collected by Mrs. D. van der Bijl,
Kruidfontein, Fraserburg District, in 1921, and sent to the Division of
Botany, where it flowered in September 1922. The plant sends up numerous
stems 9-12 inches high, and on these flowers profusely. The flowers are
martius yellow (Ridgway Colour Standards) in colour, with a dark corona
standing out in sharp relief in the middle of the saucer-shaped corolla.
Like many other members of this group of plants, the flowers have a
disagreeable odour.
DESCRIPTION:--Plant 6-8 in. high in the specimens seen (12-15 in.
according to Barkly), bushily branched; branches 1-1½ in. thick, with
12-15 tuberculate angles, glabrous, green, somewhat glaucous; tubercles
tipped with a slender pale brown spine 3½-5 in. long; flowers 1-2
together, glabrous in all parts; pedicels ¼-½ in. long; sepals 2-2½ in.
long, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate; corolla in bud hemispheric at the
basal part, 5-winged above, truncate, with a short central point, when
expanded 2½-3 in. in diameter, cup-shaped, about 1 in. deep, subtruncate
at the margin with 5 subulate or awn-like points 1½-3 in. long,
glabrous, smooth, not papillate on the central part, light yellow or
pale buff, sometimes tinged with pinkish or very pale purple; tube
obsolete, represented by a slight depression from which the blackish
corona is exserted or its margins resting upon the rim, when dried
contained in a very small cup; outer corona 1¾-2 in. in diameter,
cupular, 5-lobed; lobes ¼-⅓ in. long, nearly 1 in. broad, emarginate;
inner corona-lobes ⅖ in. long, oblong, obtuse, closely incumbent upon
the backs of the anthers and not exceeding them, dorsally connected to
the inflexed sinuses of the outer corona; follicles 4-5 in. long, 4-5
in. thick, terete-fusiform, tapering to a beak, glabrous, smooth; seeds
3-3½ in. long, 1½ in. broad, ovate, flat, with a slightly thickened
margin, glabrous, smooth, light brown. _Flora Capensis_ (National Herb.
Pretoria 2592).
* * * * *
PLATE 93.--Fig. 1, bud; Fig. 2, transverse section of stem; Fig. 3,
corona; Fig. 4, pollinia.
F.P.S.A., 1923.
[Illustration: 94.
M. Page del.]
PLATE 94.
TRITONIA MATHEWSIANA.
_Transvaal._
IRIDACEAE. Tribe IXIEAE.
TRITONIA, _Ker._; _Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant_. vol. iii. p. 708.
=Tritonia Mathewsiana=, _L. Bolus in Annals Bolus Herb_. vol. iii. p. 76.
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