the Arabian Peninsula and Socotra including new species, biological notes, and a new infrageneric classification
Author
Manning, John C.
Author
Goldblatt, Peter
text
Adansonia
2001
3
23
1
59
108
journal article
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5180119
1639-4798
5180119
21.
Romulea citrina
Baker
Handbk.
Irideae
: 100 (1892)
;
M
.
P
.
de
Vos
,
J
.
S
.
African Bot.
,
Suppl.
9: 111 (1972);
Fl.
S
.
Africa
7(2), fasc. 2: 28 (1983). —
Type
:
H
.
Bolus
6619
,
South Africa
,
Northern Cape
,
Namaqualand
, near Modderfontein (holo-,
K
!; iso-,
BOL
!,
GRA
)
.
Plants mostly
8-12 cm
high, stem subterranean or reaching
2 cm
above ground; corm with a crescent-shaped basal ridge. Leaves 3-4, the lower 2 basal, filiform, narrowly 4-grooved, compressedcylindric, curving outward; outer bracts with narrow membranous margins, inner bracts with broad brown-streaked membranous margins. Flowers yellow to pale orange, unscented, tepals elliptic,
20-32 mm
long; filaments
5-8 mm
long, anthers
4-7 mm
long. Fruiting peduncles at first curved, later suberect. Flowering: Aug.-Sep.
Romulea citrina
occurs in wet sites in Namaqualand, and although most common in the Kamiesberg, also occurs at lower elevations around Grootvlei, west of Kamieskroon. It appears to be most closely related to
R
.
montana
, with which it is easily confused, although their ranges do not overlap. In
R
.
montana
the basal ridge of the corm is very pronounced and often wider than the body of the corm and the fruiting peduncles are widely spreading. Possibly more significantly but less obviously the two species differ in leaf anatomy, with only
R
.
citrina
having sclerenchyma strands at the angles of the longitudinal grooves.