Moraea aristata | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Phylum: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Order: | Asparagales |
Family: | Iridaceae |
Genus: | Moraea |
Species: | M. aristata |
Binomial name | |
Moraea aristata | |
Synonyms [1] | |
Ferraria ocellarisSalisb. Contents |
Moraea aristata is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae. [1] [2] It is referred to by the common names blue-eyed uintjie or Blouooguintjie in Afrikaans.It is endemic to the city of Cape Town and is considered to be critically endangered.
Moraea aristata is a winter-flowering bulb (geophyte) that produces large and striking flowers. It grows 25–35 cm (9.8–13.8 in) tall and sometimes branches once. [3] [4] It has one linear leaf growing from the base. It is usually longer than the stem, and often trails on the ground. The stem and leaf are hairless. [4] The corms have a diameter of around 15 mm (0.59 in) and are covered in pale fibers. [4]
Flowers are present in September. [3] They grow on the end of the stem, or sometimes on short side branches. [5] The outer tepals are white, with a large spot of iridescent blue at the base of each one. [3] The blue patches are outlined in violet, or sometimes yellow and have a broad, black, hairy base. The tepal claws are yellow and speckled with black or violet. [5] The inner tepals split into three lobes, with a long, straight central cusp. [3] While each flower lasts only three days, several flowers are produced over a period of three to four weeks. [5]
The seed capsules have an oblong shape and split open from the top. They contain light brown, angular seeds. [5]
This plant naturally only occurs in Peninsula Shale Renosterveld vegetation in northern Cape Town. Due to the growth of the city, its habitat now mostly lies under urban sprawl. Until recently, it only naturally survived in the grounds of the South African Astronomical Observatory in the suburb of Observatory near the foot of Devil's Peak. [6] This tiny, isolated population is not sustainable in the long term due to low genetic diversity and ongoing human disturbance. [5] In 2017 and 2018, it was reintroduced to the Rondebosch Common, providing new hope for its survival in the wild. [7] The species has also become naturalised in Australia. [8]
The blue-eyed uintjie is pollinated by monkey beetles, which are drawn to the center of the flowers by the blue nectar guides on the petals. [5]
Seed dispersal occurs through wind. [5] Seeds are released when the seed capsules split open in summer. [5]
This species is classified as being critically endangered by SANBI as it has lost most of its habitat to urbanisation. [6] In spite of its extraordinary rarity in the wild, it is easy to cultivate in sunny gardens with sandy or clay soils. [5]
Agapanthus africanus, or the African lily, is a flowering plant from the genus Agapanthus found only on rocky sandstone slopes of the winter rainfall fynbos from the Cape Peninsula to Swellendam. It is also known as the lily-of-the-Nile in spite of only occurring in South Africa.
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.
Diplarrena is a genus of flowering plants in the family Iridaceae. The two species are endemic to Australia. The name is from Greek diploos ("double") and arren ("male"); plants in the genus have only two functional stamens, while all other Iridaceae have three. The name is often misspelled Diplarrhena, an error that began with George Bentham's Flora Australiensis in 1873.
Brunsvigia is a genus of African flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. It contains about 20 species native to southeastern and southern Africa from Tanzania to the Cape Provinces of South Africa.
Wachendorfia is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants that is assigned to the bloodroot family. The plants have a perennial rootstock with red sap. From the rootstock emerge lance- or line-shaped, sometime sickle-shaped, pleated, simple leaves set in a fan, that are flattened to create a left and right surface rather than an upper and lower surface. The leaves die when the seeds are shed in three of the species, and are perennial in one species. The rootstock also produces flowering stems annually that carry a panicle of zygomorphic, yellow or yellowish flowers in two distinct forms, one with the style and one stamen bent to the right and two stamens to the left, and vice versa. The fruit opens with three valves and each contains a single, hairy seed. All species only occur in the fynbos biome in the Cape Provinces of South Africa.
Moraea, the Cape tulips, is a genus of plants in the family Iridaceae, first described as a genus in 1758. The group is widespread across Africa, the Mediterranean, and central and southwestern Asia. The genus name is a tribute to the English botanist Robert More.
Albuca is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. The genus is distributed mainly in southern and eastern Africa, with some species occurring in northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Plants of the genus are known commonly as slime lilies.
Baeometra is a genus in the family Colchicaceae containing a single species, Baeometra uniflora. It is native to South Africa, where it is commonly called beetle lily due to the dark markings on the tepals.
Gladiolus alatus is a species of geophyte from South Africa. Common names include painted ladies, king kalkoentjie and kipkippie. Kalkoentjie means "little turkey" in Afrikaans and refers to the shape of the flower, which resembles a turkey's wattle. It is popular as a garden plant and an important part of the cut flower industry in parts of the world on account of its large and showy orange flowers.
Ixia monadelpha, also known as the pied kalossie or bontkalossie, is an endangered species of geophyte found in wet sandy flats in the southwestern Cape of South Africa.
Geissorhiza aspera, also known as the blue satin flower or blou sysie, is a geophyte from South Africa.
Iris notha is a species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus Limniris and series Spuriae. It is a rhizomatous perennial with deep blue or violet flowers from the Caucasus region. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. It was once Iris spuria subsp. notha, and can often be found under that name. It has the common name of fake iris or mimic iris in Russia.
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.
Wahlenbergia capensis, commonly known as the Cape bluebell, is a plant in the family Campanulaceae and is native to the Cape Province but has been introduced to Australia. It is an annual herb with up to four greenish blue, bell-shaped flowers with spreading petal lobes.
Babiana bainesii is a species of geophyte of 15–25 cm (5.9–9.8 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It sometimes grows in tufts. The approximately upright leaf blades appear directly from the ground, are narrow, sword- to line-shaped and have a left and right surface, rather than an upper and lower surface, and far exceed the flowers in length. The leaf blades are pleated. The inflorescence stem is fully underground and often branched. It contains two to eight blue, violet or mauve mirror-symmetrical flowers comprising six tepals. B. bainesii has a wide distribution and occurs in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, southernmost Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Babiana mucronata is a perennial plant species that grows to about 5–18 cm (2.0–7.1 in) high and annually forms leaves and flowers from an underground corm. It is assigned to the iris family. It has a simple or branched, more or less upright spike of 3-12 dark to pale violet-blue, mirror-symmetrical flowers. Each flower consists of a perianth that is merged below into a funnel-shaped tube of 10–25 mm (0.39–0.98 in) long but splits into six unequal tepals. Three stamens are curved, crowded near the upper lip, and carry pale violet anthers. Flowers may be found between late July and September.
Senecio malacitanus, also known as Senecio linifolius is a species of plant from South Africa.
Felicia deserti is a species of plant from South Africa. It belongs to the daisy family.
Romulea hirsuta is a geophyte from South Africa. It has pink flowers with dark marks at the edges of the yellow center.
Lachenalia unifolia, the banded viooltjie, is the most common Lachenalia species in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa.