| Romulea hirsuta | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Iridaceae |
| Genus: | Romulea |
| Species: | R. hirsuta |
| Binomial name | |
| Romulea hirsuta (Steud. ex Klatt) Eckl. ex Baker | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
Trichonema hirsutumSteud. ex Klatt | |
Romulea hirsuta is a geophyte from South Africa. It has pink flowers with dark marks at the edges of the yellow center.
Romulea hirsuta is a cormous plant which grows to a height of 6–30 cm (2.4–11.8 in) tall. The stem may be found underground or be up to 20 cm (7.9 in) tall. [2] It has between two and six basal leaves that usually grow along the stem. They have four grooves and may be ciliate. [2] The bell-shaped corm is symmetrical and has a fibrous basal rim. [3]
Unscented flowers are present in August and September. They are usually pink or red in colour and frequently have darker markings around the yellow cup in the center. [2] [3] The tepals range between 15 and 35 mm (0.59 and 1.38 in) in length. [2] The coppery orange coloured population found growing on mountains between Clanwilliam and Hermanus lack the darker markings around the center. These flowers may resemble Romulea triflora. [2]
This species is endemic to the Western Cape of South Africa. [4] It is widely distributed in the region, where it is found growing between Clanwilliam and the Agulhas Peninsula. It prefers sandy and granite substrates, but may sometimes be found growing on clay. [2]
This species is insect pollinated and is most frequently visited by monkey beetles. Two important pollinators in Darling are Lepisia rupicola (a species of monkey beetle) and an unidentified species of colletid bee. While the former visits more frequently, the latter carries a higher pollen load. [5]
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.
Disa bracteata, also known as the bract disa, leek orchid or the South African weed orchid is a species of orchid native to South Africa.
Moraea aristata is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae. 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.
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.
Romulea sabulosa is a perennial geophyte that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has a few grooved thread-like leaves, and relatively large burgundy red trimerous flowers, reminiscent of crocus flowers, with yellow to light greenish with black markings and stamens with light green free filaments. It only occurs on sandy clay on renosterveld west of Nieuwoudtville in the Northern Cape province South Africa. It is called satynblom in Afrikaans.
Romulea tortuosa is a herbaceous perennial geophyte in the family Iridaceae native to South Africa. It has a small corm in the soil, a few prostrate coiling leaves, and fragrant, trimerous yellow flowers, sometimes with six brown blotches on the inside near the bottom of the flower.
Geissorhiza melanthera is a small perennial plant of 14–18 cm high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It survives the dry southern summer through storage of its resources in a corm. The stem carries two or three erect, sticky leaves of up to 18 cm (7 in) long, H-shaped in cross-section. This species blooms with six to twelve bilaterally symmetrical flowers, in a spike. Sometimes the spike has one side branch with fewer flowers. Each flower has six pale beige perianth lobes, a purple-red ring around a purple red tube and three blackish stamens. Each flower is subtended by two 1.25–2.25 cm long green bracts. This species flowers from the end of September till mid October. It is an endemic of the western slopes of the Piketberg mountains in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Romulea monadelpha is a herbaceous perennial geophyte in the family Iridaceae native to South Africa. It has a small corm in the soil, a few thread-like leaves, and trimerous dark red flowers with elaborate markings on the inside near the bottom of the flower. It is called karoo satynblom in Afrikaans.
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.
Lobostemon argenteus, or the silver healthbush, blue rocket bugloss or disselblaarluibos, is a species in the forget-me-not family that is endemic to South Africa.
Lobostemon glaber, the renoster healthbush, is a species of plant from South Africa. It is in the forget-me not family.
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.
Senecio abruptus, or the yellow starvation ragwort, is a species of plant that is endemic to the Cape Provinces of South Africa.
Helichrysum retortum, the flask everlasting or sea strawflower, is a species of plant from South Africa.
Lachenalia unifolia, the banded viooltjie, is the most common Lachenalia species in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa.
Lachenalia variegata, also known as the spotty viooltjie, is a species of plant from the Western Cape of South Africa.