Brunsvigia | |
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Brunsvigia josephinae | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Order: | Asparagales |
Family: | Amaryllidaceae |
Subfamily: | Amaryllidoideae |
Genus: | Brunsvigia Heist. [1] |
Synonyms [2] | |
Brunsuigia Heist., alternate spelling |
Brunsvigia is a genus of African flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. [3] It contains about 20 species native to southeastern and southern Africa from Tanzania to the Cape Provinces of South Africa.
Brunsvigia are perennial, deciduous, temperate, bulbous herbal plants. Most species have subterranean bulbs but they are usually half-exposed in B. herrei and B. josephinae. Bulbs are tender, usually large (up to 20 cm diameter), winter-growing and summer-dormant, generally flowering in early autumn. Tunics are often thick and cartilaginous, typically brittle and tan-coloured, although they are brown and papery in B. josephinae and B. litoralis.
The leaves are annual; when mature, the leaves are broad and oblong to tongue-shaped. In species with small bulbs – B. radula, B. comptonii, and B. namaquana – there are just two or three leaves per plant but most other species have at least four leaves per bulb. B. josephinae has the distinction of producing as many as 20 leaves. The leaves mostly lie flat on the ground and sometimes press down so firmly that they lie vertically if the bulb is dug up. Only in B. litoralis, B. josephinae, B. grandiflora, B. undulata and B. herrei do the leaves stand clear of the ground. Although usually smooth, the upper leaf surfaces of two Namaqualand species (B. radula and B. namaquana) are covered with straw-coloured bristles and in some populations of B. striata from the southern Cape, they bear soft, scale-like hairs. In the winter rainfall region of southern Africa, the foliage is produced after the flowering heads have been shed, whereas in the summer rainfall region the vegetative and flowering stages often overlap. The scape is firm, to 35 cm, deciduous and breaking at ground level in fruiting time.
The inflorescences, a few- to many-flowered umbels, are particularly conspicuous. In most species the pedicels are long, stiff, straight and radiate outwards to form an almost perfectly spherical head; they elongate and spread after blooming. However, B. litoralis, B. josephinae and B. orientalis differ in having pedicels that curve below each flower. Just three species (B. pulchra, B. marginata and B. elandsmontana) have compact, brush-like inflorescences. The flowers are zygomorphic or almost actinomorphic with short tube, segments spreading-recurved. The six tepals of each flower are free to the base or shortly fused into a tube. Radially symmetrical, trumpet-shaped flowers occur in species with compact, dense inflorescences, whereas bilaterally symmetrical flowers occur in species with open, lax heads. In B. comptonii, B. radula and B. namaquana the flowers are highly asymmetrical as all but one tepal curve upwards. Often the flowers are scented and all produce nectar. Their colour vary from ruby-red to brilliant scarlet or pale to bright pink and in some species the entire inflorescence is attractively coloured. Pink flowers are the norm, whereas red flowers are found in B. marginata, B. orientalis, B. litoralis and B. josephinae. Floral markings are often variable within species but dark veins on the tepals are characteristic for B. bosmaniae and B. gregaria. When in flower, the plants are spectacular but the flowering period is brief and restricted to summer and autumn.
Stamens clustered, arising from the perianth tube, ± declinate or erect, shortly connate at base. Stigma capitate, trilobate (three-lobed). Each locule has 3-10 superimposed ovules whose shape resembles a spinning top. Style filiform, declinate. The water-rich, non-dormant, ovoid, reddish green seeds are borne in large, dry capsules that are spindle-shaped or three-angled, obtuse or acute, transversally veined, and often heavily ribbed. Capsules are dehiscent loculicidally or breaking unevenly. Dehiscence in most species of Brunsvigia is somewhat tardy and confined to the apex of the capsule, hampered below by heavy ribs that keep the septa closed for most of their length. [4] The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22. [5] [6] [7]
Brunsvigia is the only genus of Amaryllideae in which several species have stout, somewhat tubular, brilliant scarlet, pink, or red flowers that are adapted to bird pollination. [6]
The genus Brunsvigia was named after the House of Braunschweig [Brunswick]-Lüneburg, [5] specifically honouring the Duke of Brunswick who promoted the study of plants, including the beautiful Cape species B. orientalis. The name was first used in 1753 by Lorenz Heister, a German surgeon and botanist, to describe a single bulb received in 1748 by Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff from Ryk Tulbagh at the Cape. [8]
Image | Scientific name | Distribution |
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Brunsvigia bosmaniae F.M.Leight. | northwest and southwest Cape province | |
Brunsvigia comptonii W.F.Barker | western Karoo | |
Brunsvigia elandsmontana Snijman | Western Cape | |
Brunsvigia gariepensis Snijman | Cape province | |
Brunsvigia grandiflora Lindl. | Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Free State. | |
Brunsvigia gregaria R.A.Dyer | Cape province | |
Brunsvigia herrei Leight. ex W.F.Barker | Namibia southward into Namaqualand. | |
Brunsvigia josephinae (Delile) Ker Gawl. | western Cape to the western Karoo | |
Brunsvigia kirkii Baker | Tanzania to Malawi. | |
Brunsvigia litoralis R.A.Dyer | southeastern Cape | |
Brunsvigia marginata (Jacq.) W.T.Aiton | western Cape. | |
Brunsvigia namaquana D.Müll.-Doblies & U.Müll.-Doblies | Namaqualand. | |
Brunsvigia natalensis Baker | South Africa | |
Brunsvigia nervosa (Poir.) ined. | Cape province | |
Brunsvigia orientalis (L.) Aiton ex Eckl. | Western Cape. | |
Brunsvigia pulchra (W.F.Barker) D.Müll.-Doblies & U.Müll.-Doblies | Namaqualand | |
Brunsvigia radula (Jacq.) W.T.Aiton | Namaqualand | |
Brunsvigia radulosa Herb. | Eastern Cape and the Orange Free State. | |
Brunsvigia undulata F.M.Leight. | Eastern Cape. | |
Amaryllis is the only genus in the subtribe Amaryllidinae. It is a small genus of flowering bulbs, with two species. The better known of the two, Amaryllis belladonna, is a native of the Western Cape region of South Africa, particularly the rocky southwest area between the Olifants River Valley and Knysna.
Nerine is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. They are bulbous perennials, some evergreen, associated with rocky and arid habitats. They bear spherical umbels of lily-like flowers in shades from white through pink to crimson. In the case of deciduous species, the flowers may appear on naked stems before the leaves develop. Native to South Africa, there are about 20–30 species in the genus. Though described as lilies, they are not significantly related to the true lilies (Liliaceae), but more closely resemble their relatives, Amaryllis and Lycoris. The genus was established by the Revd. William Herbert in 1820.
Haemanthus is a Southern African genus of flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. Members of the genus are known as blood lily and paintbrush lily. There are some 22 known species, native to South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini. About 15 species occur in the winter rainfall region of Namaqualand and the Western Cape, the remainder being found in the summer rainfall region, with one species Haemanthus albiflos occurring in both regions.
Strumaria is a genus of African plants in Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. The genus is known in nature only from South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia. Almost all species flower in the autumn and are cultivated as ornamental bulbous plants.
Scadoxus is a genus of African and Arabian plants in the Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. The English names blood lily or blood flower are used for some of the species. The genus has close affinities with Haemanthus. Species of Scadoxus are grown as ornamental plants for their brilliantly coloured flowers, either in containers or in the ground in frost-free climates. Although some species have been used in traditional medicine, they contain poisonous alkaloids.
Ammocharis is a small genus from sub-Saharan Africa, in the family Amaryllidaceae which includes seven species distributed in Africa. The plant grows as above-ground bulb, preferring seasonally wet, hot, sandy soils and full sun.
Cyrtanthus is a genus of perennial, herbaceous and bulbous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae.
Ammocharis longifolia is an African species of bulbous flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae. It has been placed as the only species, Cybistetes longifolia, in the monotypic genus Cybistetes.
The Griffineae is a tribe in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. It includes 3 genera with 22 species endemic to Brazil in South America. A typical character of the representatives of the tribe are the flowers - They are blue or lilac and collected into an umbel. Only the members of this tribe and the genus Lycoris are able to form flowers with such color in the whole subfamily Amaryllidoideae of Amaryllidaceae. The species in this group are typically perennial and produce bulbs. The leaves are green, with elliptical form in most of the cases but in some members, as in Worsleya, they are sword-shaped.
The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus Amaryllis and is commonly known as the amaryllis family. The leaves are usually linear, and the flowers are usually bisexual and symmetrical, arranged in umbels on the stem. The petals and sepals are undifferentiated as tepals, which may be fused at the base into a floral tube. Some also display a corona. Allyl sulfide compounds produce the characteristic odour of the onion subfamily (Allioideae).
Boophone disticha is a bulbous tropical and subtropical flowering plant, endemic to Africa. Commonly called the century plant or tumbleweed, Boophone disticha was first collected in 1781 from South Africa by Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg and described by Carl Linnaeus as Amaryllis disticha. Since that time it has been placed in the genera Brunsvigia and Haemanthus, finally coming to rest as Boophone. The genus name itself was spelled in three different ways by the author William Herbert, straining the procedures of the rules of nomenclature. The etymology of the genus is from the Greek bous = ox, and phontes= killer of, a clear warning that eating the plant can be fatal to livestock.
Amaryllidoideae is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, order Asparagales. The most recent APG classification, APG III, takes a broad view of the Amaryllidaceae, which then has three subfamilies, one of which is Amaryllidoideae, and the others are Allioideae and Agapanthoideae. The subfamily consists of about seventy genera, with over eight hundred species, and a worldwide distribution.
Nerine masoniorum is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae, native to the eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is a bulbous perennial belonging to the group of nerines that have narrow evergreen foliage. The thread-like leaves reach a length of 25 cm or more. The flowering stem is 15–25 cm tall, with up to 11 flowers arranged in an umbel. Each flower has six narrow pink tepals with wavy edges. It flowers in late summer in cultivation, the first of the nerines to do so. It has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Amaryllideae are a tribe of subfamily Amaryllidoideae. They are herbaceous monocot perennial flowering plants with a predominantly Southern African distribution, with the exception of the pantropical genus Crinum. They are generally treated as consisting of four subtribes. In addition to Crinum, other genera include Amaryllis, Boophone and Strumaria.
Lycorideae are a small tribe of subfamily Amaryllidoideae. They are herbaceous monocot perennial flowering plants endemic to Asia, and consisting of two genera including the type genus, Lycoris.
Strumariinae is one of four subtribes within the tribe Amaryllideae, found in southern Africa.
Crininae is one of four subtribes within the tribe Amaryllideae, with a pantropical distribution (Crinum) and also sub-Saharan Africa.
Haemanthinae is a small subtribe of Haemantheae, and therefore within the African clades of Amaryllidoideae. It consists of two genera, Haemanthus, and Scadoxus.
Strumaria discifera is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae, native to west and south-west Cape Provinces. It was first described in 1992.