Moraea

Moraea crispa, from Silverhill Seeds and Books.

Belongs within: Iridaceae.

Moraea, the Cape tulips, is a genous of corm-bearing herbs native to southern Africa.

Characters (from Flora of Victoria): Perennial herb, leaves and flowers annual; corm globose or ovoid, outer layers fibrous to woody, sometimes with bulbils. Stem sometimes below ground at flowering. Leaves 1–several, rarely numerous, basal or sub-basal, linear, laterally channelled, flat or terete, sometimes with bulbils in leaf axils. Inflorescence with scape branched or unbranched; flowers clustered or solitary, sometimes with numerous flower clusters appressed to scape; primary bracts 2, rarely numerous, usually herbaceous. Perianth parts united basally into tube or free and abruptly narrowed basally, subequal or inner perianth shorter than outer, the inner sometimes greatly reduced; staminal filaments united or almost completely united, rarely free, anthers usually linear, often appressed to style-branches; ovary globose to oblong-linear; style usually short, 3-branched, petaloid, each branch divided or 2-lobed or style terete with 3 stigmatic lobes. Capsule ovoid to cylindric or club-shaped, sometimes membranous, enclosed by, or exceeding primary bracts; seeds numerous, angular.

Moraea MG06
    `--M. sect. Polyanthes [incl. Roggeveldia Goldblatt 1979] MG06
         |--M. crispa MG06
         |--M. fistulosa [=*Roggeveldia fistulosa] MG06
         |--M. marginata Manning & Goldblatt 2006 MG06
         `--M. monticola [=Roggeveldia montana Goldblatt 1992] MG06

Moraea incertae sedis:
  M. flaccida DAF07
  M. garipensis CV06
  M. graniticola CV06
  M. hexaglottis CV06
  M. miniata DAF07
  M. namibensis CV06
  M. ramosissima DE06
  M. rigidifolia CV06
  M. schimperi DVC08
  M. serpentina ERV99
  M. tortilis ERV99

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

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

[DVC08] Darbyshire, I., K. Vollesen & H. M. Chapman. 2008. A remarkable range disjunction recorded in Metarungia pubinervia (Acanthaceae). Kew Bulletin 63 (4): 613–615.

[DAF07] Department of Agriculture and Food. 2007. Common Seasonal Pests. State of Western Australia.

[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.

[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.

[MG06] Manning, J. C., & P. Goldblatt. 2006. New species of Iridaceae from the Hantam-Roggeveld Centre of Endemism, and the Bokkeveld, Northern Cape, South Africa. Bothalia 36 (2): 139–145.