Lachenalia

Lachenalia aloides, copyright Nadiatalent.

Belongs within: Hyacinthoideae.

Lachenalia, Cape cowslips, is a genus of bulbous herbs found in southern South Africa.

See also: Lachenalia.

Characters (from Manning et al. 2004): Deciduous; bulb subterranean, subglobose or flattened, tunicated, often bulbilliferous; outer tunics usually pale and membranous, sometimes papery and dark brown or blackish and then often forming a fibrous neck. Cataphyll tubular, membranous. Leaves 1 to several but usually 2, usually contemporary with flowers but sometimes dying off, prostrate to suberect, usually lanceolate but sometimes terete, linear or heart-shaped, clasping at base, smooth or pustulate, rarely with simple or stellate trichomes, subsucculent or leathery, uniformly green or spotted or banded, especially on sheath. Inflorescence a few- to many-flowered spike, raceme or corymb, sometimes condensed and borne at ground level, upper flowers often vestigial; peduncle erect, rarely condensed, cylindrical or swollen and clavate, sometimes spotted or banded; bracts small, triangular, not spurred, sometimes becoming larger acropetally; bracteoles lacking; pedicels short to moderately long or vestigial. Flowers variously coloured, often with darker tips, often scented, often weakly zygomorphic, campanulate to urceolate or tubular, spreading, nodding or suberect; pedicels spreading or vestigial; tepals fused below into an oblique cup or short to long tube, subequal or inner longer than outer, the outer usually with a swelling or gibbosity near apex, oblong-lanceolate, erect to recurved, persistent; stamens suberect or more or less declinate, filaments fused to base of tepals, inserted in two series at different levels, the outer lower than the inner and sometimes shorter, included or exserted, filiform or clavate; anthers versatile; ovary subglobose; ovules several per locule; style terete, erect or declinate; stigma apical, penicillate. Capsule membranous or papery, ovoid, 3-angled or -winged; seeds subglobose, ovoid or pear-shaped, black, smooth or rugulose, testa tightly adhering. x=5–15.

<==Lachenalia Jacquin ex Murray 1784 MGF04 (see below for synonymy)
    |--L. namibiensis MGF04
    `--+--+--L. aloides (L.f.) Hort. Berlin ex Anon. 1899 MGF04, CC87 (see below for synonymy)
       |  `--L. pusilla [incl. Massonia undulata, *Brachyscypha undulata] MGF04
       `--+--L. corymbosa (Linnaeus) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 (see below for synonymy) MGF04
          `--L. ensifolia (Thunberg) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 (see below for synonymy) MGF04

Lachenalia incertae sedis:
  L. angelica ERV99
  L. arbuthnotiae DE06
  L. capensis DE06
  L. cernua Duncan in Duncan & Edwards 2006 DE06
  ‘*Coelanthus’ complicatus Willdenow ex Schultes & Schultes 1830 EN20
  L. congesta ERV99
  L. contaminata Aiton 1789 (see below for synonymy) EN20
  L. giessii CV06
  L. klinghardtiana CV06
  L. kliprandensis ERV99
  L. latifolia ERV99
  L. longituba (Van der Merwe) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 (see below for synonymy) MGF04
  L. lutea Duncan in Duncan & Edwards 2006 DE06
  L. maughanii (Barker) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 (see below for synonymy) MGF04
  L. mediana [=*Chloriza mediana] EN20
  L. moniliformis Barker 1983 EN20
  L. nardousbergensis Duncan in Duncan & Edwards 2006 DE06
  L. nutans CV06
  L. orchioides [=Hyacinthus orchioides, *Orchiops orchioides] EN20
  L. patula Jacquin 1791 [incl. L. succulenta Masson ex Baker 1886] EN20
  L. paucifolia (Barker) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 (see below for synonymy) MGF04
  L. pearsonii CV06
  L. peersii DE06
  L. polypodantha Schlechter ex Barker 1979 EN20
    |--L. p. ssp. polypodantha EN20
    `--L. p. ssp. eburnea Duncan 2012 EN20
  L. purpureo-caerulea [=*Platyestes purpureo-caerulea] EN20
  L. reflexa Thunb. 1794 CC87
  L. stayneri ERV99
  L. trichophylla ERV99
  L. unifolia [=*Monoestes unifolia] EN20
  L. variegata DE06

Lachenalia Jacquin ex Murray 1784 MGF04 [incl. Brachyscypha Baker 1871 MGF04, Chloriza Salisbury 1866 EN20, Coelanthus Willdenow ex Schultes & Schultes 1830 EN20, Himas Salisbury 1866 EN20, Monoestes Salisbury 1866 EN20, Orchiops Salisbury 1866 EN20, Periboea Kunth 1843 MGF04, Platyestes Salisbury 1866 EN20, Polyxena Kunth 1843 MGF04]

Lachenalia aloides (L.f.) Hort. Berlin ex Anon. 1899 MGF04, CC87 [=Phormium aloides L.f. 1782 CC87; incl. *L. tricolor Jacq. 1780–1784 CC87]

Lachenalia contaminata Aiton 1789 [=Scillopsis contaminata (Aiton) Lemaire 1856; incl. L. albida Trattinick 1814, L. angustifolia Jacquin 1797, *Himas angustifolia, Scillopsis angustifolia (Jacquin) Lemaire 1856, Lachenalia fragrans Loddiges 1826, L. hyacinthina Hort. 1906, L. hyacinthoides Jacquin 1797, Scillopsis hyacinthoides (Jacquin) Lemaire 1856] EN20

Lachenalia corymbosa (Linnaeus) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 [=Hyacinthus corymbosus Linnaeus 1771, Massonia corymbosa (Linnaeus) Ker Gawl. 1807, *Periboea corymbosa (Linnaeus) Kunth 1843, Polyxena corymbosa (Linnaeus) Jessop 1976, Scilla corymbosa (Linnaeus) Ker Gawl. 1812] MGF04

Lachenalia ensifolia (Thunberg) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 [=Mauhlia ensifolia Thunberg 1794, Agapanthus ensifolius (Thunberg) Willdenow 1799, Massonia ensifolia (Thunberg) Ker Gawl. 1802, Polyxena ensifolia (Thunberg) Schönland 1910; incl. Polyanthes pygmaea, *Polyxena pygmaea] MGF04

Lachenalia longituba (Van der Merwe) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 [=Polyxena longituba Van der Merwe 2001] MGF04

Lachenalia maughanii (Barker) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 [=Polyxena maughanii Barker 1931] MGF04

Lachenalia paucifolia (Barker) Manning & Goldblatt in Manning, Goldblatt & Fay 2004 [=Hyacinthus paucifolius Barker 1941, Periboea paucifolia (Barker) Müll.-Doblies & Müll.-Doblies 1997, Polyxena paucifolia (Barker) Van der Merwe & Manning in Goldblatt & Manning 2000] MGF04

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[CC87] Clifford, H. T., J. G. Conran, J. B. Williams, R. J. F. Henderson, H. J. Hewson, E. M. Watson, G. J. Keighery, D. M. Churchill, I. R. H. Telford, A. Thongpukdee, N. H. Brittan, A. S. George, W. T. Stearn & T. D. Macfarlane. 1987. Liliaceae. Flora of Australia 45: 148–419.

[CV06] Craven, P., & P. Vorster. 2006. Patterns of plant diversity and endemism in Namibia. Bothalia 36 (2): 175–189.

[DE06] Duncan, G. D., & T. J. Edwards. 2006. Three new species of Lachenalia (Hyacinthaceae: Massonieae) from Western and Northern Cape, South Africa. Bothalia 36 (2): 147–155.

[EN20] Eggli, U., & R. Nyffeler (eds) 2020. Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Monocotyledons 2^nd ed. Springer.

[ERV99] Esler, K. J., P. W. Rundel & P. Vorster. 1999. Biogeography of prostrate-leaved geophytes in semi-arid South Africa: hypotheses on functionality. Plant Ecology 142 (1–2): 105–120.

[MGF04] Manning, J. C., P. Goldblatt & M. F. Fay. 2004. A revised generic synopsis of Hyacinthaceae in sub-Saharan Africa, based on molecular evidence, including new combinations and the new tribe Pseudoprospereae. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 60 (3): 533–568.