Lapeirousia oreogena | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Order: | Asparagales |
Family: | Iridaceae |
Genus: | Lapeirousia |
Species: | L. oreogena |
Binomial name | |
Lapeirousia oreogena Schltr. ex Goldblatt | |
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Distribution of L. oreogena in South Africa |
Lapeirousia oreogena, known in English as cushion cabong and in Afrikaans as perskussing, is a species of tuberous geophyte in the Iris family, Iridaceae. It is found in a small area between the provinces of Northern Cape and Western Cape in South Africa. Lapeirousia oreogena was first described in 1897 by Rudolf Schlechter and then subsequently published in Contributions from the Bolus Herbarium by Peter Goldblatt in 1972.
The flowers of L. oreogena are pollinated by a single species of fly in the family Nemestrinidae, Prosoeca marinusi , a relationship described as one of the "most specialized systems" of coevolution among related plants. [1] : 635 It is recognized by the Red List of South African Plants as being "least concern".
Lapeirousia oreogena is a tuberous geophyte in the Iris family, Iridaceae. [2] [3] It formerly was placed in the subgenus Lapeirousia, in the L. silenoides group, within the genus Lapeirousia, [4] with recent genetic analysis showing that it belongs in Clade B, with its closest relative being Lapeirousia plicata . [5] The plant grows out of a corm and lacks a stem, it is a perennial that reaches heights of 10 centimetres (3.9 in). [6] [3] It is described as a "striking species" [7] by the Pacific Bulb Society, with linear to sword shaped outer leaves and undulated inner leaves. The leaves are described as being lanceolate in shape, ribbed, and tufted. [6]
The flowers are actinomorphic, being star-shaped, rather than the two-lipped flowers that are common for the cabong genus Lapeirousia . [8] The flowers of L. oreogena are protandrous, meaning the male sexual organs develop before the female. [1] The flowers are scentless to the human nose. [1] They are borne on an inflorescence at ground level, [4] in the shape of a spiralling spike on slender, undulating bracts that are green in colour. [6] Flowers per plant vary between year to year, in vigorous plants, they can have five spikes with up to 20 flowers per spike. [4] They are violet in color, with the tepal bases having black to dark purple blotches in an inner ring, [9] [7] with six cream colored markings that are shaped resembling isosceles triangles or arrowheads [10] that point towards the entrance of the corolla tube. [1] [8] These markings serve as functional nectar guides [1] : 637 to facilitate the successful insertion of the pollinator fly's proboscis during pollination. [10] The flowers are 2 centimetres (0.79 in) in diameter. [6] The flowers have six tepals which are slightly obovate in shape, with the upper parts rounded and slightly curving inwards. There are small attenuating points at the tepal tips. [8] At the base of the flower is a long perianth tube at a length of 4.5–6 centimetres (1.8–2.4 in). [1] Both the tepals and the flower markings are UV absorptive. [1]
Due to the actinomorphic nature of the flower, the stamens and style are symmetrically disposed. [4] There are three stamens which stand erect at the centre of the flower. [6] The anthers are oblong in shape, and are blue-purple in colour. The style has three branches, [6] the thinner-style branches are slightly longer than the rest. The filaments are a pale-bluish in colour. [8] L. oreogena is known to be able to set seed in greenhouses where insects were excluded, [4] implying partial autogamy, [1] but field studies demonstrate that the plant is dependent on pollinator visitation for seed production. [1] [11]
Flowering occurs in late winter and early spring, [6] from August to September. [3] Flowers generally are open from 3 to 5 days, and stigmas are extended and open on days 2 to 3. [1]
Lapeirousia oreogena is rhinomyophilous, a pollination syndrome referring to the pollination of flowers by flies with long mouthparts. [12] The flowers of L. oreogena are pollinated by a single [12] species of Nemestrinid fly in the genus Prosoeca , [13] [4] described as one of the "most specialized systems" of coevolution among related plants. [1] : 635 28 plants in the region converged to the same pollination syndrome as L. oreogena. [10] The species of Prosoeca was formally named in 2018 as Prosoeca marinusi , which serves as the only or main pollinator for four species of plant. [14]
The flies hover in order to orient themselves and insert their proboscis into the tube. When the proboscis is inserted into the tube of sufficient length, as it feeds the fly grabs the tepals of the flower with all three pairs of legs through flexing its tibiae while the wings remain in motion. [4] The pollinator fly is most active on mild and warm days from mid-afternoon and the early afternoon, and has a second flight period in the late afternoon. Flowers are visited between 3 and 5 seconds, pollen is adhered to the frons and thorax. [4] It is the sole species that has pollen deposition on the frons and thorax, with other Lapeirousia species depositing pollen on the dorsum and upper frons. [4] In order to facilitate the most efficient transfer of pollen, flies must be just out of reach of the bottom of the nectar tube. Because of this, there exists an evolutionary arms race between the plant and the fly selecting for longer flower tubes and longer tongued flies to facilitate more efficiency in nectar acquisition. [10]
In experiments conducted by Dennis Hansen et al., the flowers' arrow markings were blotted out using black ink from markers which resulted in a reflectivity similar to the base colour of the tepal. [1] Pollen dispersal was simulated using the application of dye powder. [1] The result was that flies were able to find the flowers with equal frequency. [1] : 636 But with the removal of the arrow markings, the pollinators were unable to insert their proboscis successfully. Only 5 out of 64 flies (7.8%) were successfully able to insert their proboscis successfully. [1] The UV absorption of the nectar guides contradicted popular notions that nectar guides provided reflective contrast on the UV spectrum. [1] Without arrow markings, only a single flower out of 20 was able to export dye grains, compared to 11 out of 21 which had retained their arrow markings. The fruit set of unmarked female flowers (17 out of 29) compared to marked female flowers (9 out of 34) was significantly higher. The results demonstrated a causal link between nectar guides and plant fitness for both male and female components of a plant within a natural system. [1] Long distance attraction was not impacted significantly by the absence of nectar guides, but when pollinators were attracted, in the absence of guides, flies were left hovering above the corolla or attempting to probe the flower and finding themselves unable to. [1]
Lapeirousia oreogena has a fairly restricted distribution, [6] [1] on the northern extremity of the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa. [1] It is found in clay soils in the Northwestern Cape region of South Africa. [7] Namely the Calvinia District, [2] to the Bokkeveld Plateau and the western Karoo, [9] and Nieuwoudtville. [6] [1]
Lapeirousia oreogena inhabits renosterveld on clay flats. [6] In the Nieuwoudtville Wildflower Reserve, plants were found in dense patches in open grassy areas between boulder outcrops made of dolerite. [1]
Lapeirousia oreogena is not currently considered to be threatened. [6] In a 2005 review of South African Flora, D. Raimondo and J.E. Victor ranked Lapeirousia oreogena as "least-concern". This is the current designation of L. oreogena as recognized by the South African National Biodiversity Institute's Red List of South African Plants. [15] It was previously assessed as "rare" in a 1996 review by C. Hilton-Taylor for the "Red data list of southern African plants". [15] According to a 2024 assessment by S.P. Bachman et al., it was described as "confident" to be threatened in the future. [2]
The generic epiphet for the genus Lapeirousia is derived from Philippe-Isidore Picot de Lapeyrouse. [16] [17] The specific epiphet, oreogena, means "born of mountains." [18] Lapeirousia oreogena was first described in 1897 by Rudolf Schlechter and then subsequently published in Contributions from the Bolus Herbarium by Peter Goldblatt in 1972. [19] [20]
The English language name for the plant is "cushion cabong", [6] in Afrikaans its name is perskussing, which means "purple cushion." [6] [3] It is also known as "purple laps" or "bluesy" in English. [21] The Afrikaans name perskussing is shared with the related Babiana praemorsa . [22]
Iridaceae is a family of plants in order Asparagales, taking its name from the irises. It has a nearly global distribution, with 69 accepted genera with a total of c. 2500 species. It includes a number of economically important cultivated plants, such as species of Freesia, Gladiolus, and Crocus, as well as the crop saffron.
Gladiolus is a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae).
Babiana is a genus of geophytes in the family Iridaceae with 93 recognized species as of March 2022. The leaves consist of a stalk and a blade that are at an angle to each other. The leaf blades are entire, laterally flattened and pleated, and often hairy. Each individual flower is subtended by two hairy or smooth bracts that are green in most species. The outer bract is often the largest of the two. In most species the bracts have a dry, brown tip, but in a few species it is entirely green or entirely dry when flowering or the outer bract is translucent and has a papery texture. The inner bract is forked or split all the way to its base. Each flower is without a pedicel, with six tepals that are merged at their base into a tube and form a perianth that is mirror-symmetrical in most species, with three anthers implanted where the perianth tube widens and that are, in almost every species, clustered at one side of the style. The style has three branches that widen towards the tip and the ovary is inferior. Flowers occur in almost every conceivable colour, many have markings on some of the tepals, and few star-symmetrical flowers have a centre that strongly contrasts with the free part of the perianth. The majority of these species are endemic to the west and southwest of South Africa, and southwestern Namibia, but one species occurs elsewhere in Namibia and South Africa and another species can be found in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The genus name is derived from the Dutch word baviaan, referring to the Chacma baboon, Papio ursinus, that consumes the corms of plants in the genus. The genus is called bobbejaantjie in Afrikaans, meaning small baboon.
Entomophily or insect pollination is a form of pollination whereby pollen of plants, especially but not only of flowering plants, is distributed by insects. Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves with bright colours, sometimes with conspicuous patterns leading to rewards of pollen and nectar; they may also have an attractive scent which in some cases mimics insect pheromones. Insect pollinators such as bees have adaptations for their role, such as lapping or sucking mouthparts to take in nectar, and in some species also pollen baskets on their hind legs. This required the coevolution of insects and flowering plants in the development of pollination behaviour by the insects and pollination mechanisms by the flowers, benefiting both groups. Both the size and the density of a population are known to affect pollination and subsequent reproductive performance.
Freesia laxa, commonly known as flowering grass, is a small species of cormous flowering plant in the family Iridaceae, from eastern and southern Africa, from Kenya to northeastern South Africa. It is grown in gardens as an ornamental plant.
Pollination syndromes are suites of flower traits that have evolved in response to natural selection imposed by different pollen vectors, which can be abiotic or biotic, such as birds, bees, flies, and so forth through a process called pollinator-mediated selection. These traits include flower shape, size, colour, odour, reward type and amount, nectar composition, timing of flowering, etc. For example, tubular red flowers with copious nectar often attract birds; foul smelling flowers attract carrion flies or beetles, etc.
Phlox divaricata, the wild blue phlox, woodland phlox, or wild sweet william, is a species of flowering plant in the family Polemoniaceae, native to forests and fields in eastern North America.
Phlox pilosa, the downy phlox or prairie phlox, is an herbaceous plant in the family Polemoniaceae. It is native to eastern North America, where it is found in open areas such as prairies and woodlands.
Bombylius major is a parasitic bee mimic fly. B. major is the most common type of fly within the Bombylius genus. The fly derives its name from its close resemblance to bumblebees and are often mistaken for them.
Crocoideae is one of the major subfamilies in the family Iridaceae.
Lapeirousia is a genus in the plant family Iridaceae. It is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, about a third of the species occurring in fynbos.
The monocots are one of the two major groups of flowering plants, the other being the dicots. In order to reproduce they utilize various strategies such as employing forms of asexual reproduction, restricting which individuals they are sexually compatible with, or influencing how they are pollinated. Nearly all reproductive strategies that evolved in the dicots have independently evolved in monocots as well. Despite these similarities and their close relatedness, monocots and dicots have distinct traits in their reproductive biologies.
Cyrtanthus ventricosus, commonly called fire lily, is a small deciduous, bulbous plant reaching a height of 100–250 mm (3.9–9.8 in). It is in the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae, and is found along the Cape Fold Mountains from the Cape Peninsula, Western Cape, to the Kouga Mountains, Eastern Cape in South Africa.
Moegistorhynchus longirostris is a keystone species of fly that lives on the west coast of South Africa.
Babiana hirsuta is a species of geophyte of 40–70 cm (16–28 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has many scarlet mirror-symmetrical flowers in a branched inflorescence with several short ascending branches. The flower has a narrow tube, and three large, blackish or dark purple anthers that extend beyond the dorsal tepal. The leaves are velvety hairy, lance-shaped, laterally compressed and set in a fan. It is an endemic species of South Africa that can be found along the west coast of the Northern and Western Cape provinces as far south as Saldanha. It is called red babiana in English, but that name is also applied to Babiana villosa, and strandlelie, sandlelie and rooihanekam in Afrikaans. Until 2008, the strandlelie was known as Babiana thunbergii.
Babiana tubiflora is a species of geophyte of 7–15 cm (2.8–5.9 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has whitish mirror-symmetrical flowers with a long narrow tube that split into six tepal lobes, have three stamens, and line- to lance-shaped, laterally compressed leaves. It is an endemic species of South Africa that can be found along the west and south coast of the Western Cape province. It flowers from August to early October.
Babiana sambucina is a species of geophyte of 8–30 cm (3.1–11.8 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has dense spikes of blue to violet-coloured, often fragrant flowers. There are two subspecies, B. sambucina subsp. longibracteata is restricted to a small area in the Northern Cape, B. sambucina subsp. sambucina grows in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. Flowers are present in August and September.
The pollination of orchids is a complex chapter in the biology of this family of plants that are distinguished by the complexity of their flowers and by intricate ecological interactions with their pollinator agents. It has captured the attention of numerous scientists over time, including Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin published in 1862 the first observations of the fundamental role of insects in orchid pollination, in his book The Fertilization of Orchids. Darwin stated that the varied stratagems orchids use to attract their pollinators transcend the imagination of any human being.
Lapeirousia anceps, also known as long kabong, is a species of geophyte in the genus Lapeirousia. It is native in the Cape provinces in South Africa.
Romulea hirsuta is a geophyte from South Africa. It has pink flowers with dark marks at the edges of the yellow center.