Transvaal.
Iridaceae. Tribe Ixieae.
Tritonia, Ker.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 708.
Tritonia Mathewsiana, L. Bolus in Annals Bolus Herb. vol. iii. p. 76.
This species, which belongs to one of the large South African genera of the iris family, differs from all genera of Iridaceae hitherto figured in this publication in having small brown spathe valves. The genus is represented in South Africa by over thirty species, mostly confined to the coastal region of the Cape Province, but with a few in Namaqualand, Natal, and the Transvaal. Tritonia lineata is the most widely distributed species of the genus, occurring in the Mossel Bay, Bathurst, Albany, Stockenstroom, and Somerset East Divisions, and extending into East Griqualand, Basutoland, and Natal.
The species here figured is a new record for the Transvaal, and was found by Mrs. H. M. Wood at Graskop, Pilgrim’s Rest. Plants were sent to the National Botanic Gardens, Kirstenbosch, and flowered there during February of the years 1918-1921 (National Botanic Gardens, No. 542/16). An illustration was made from these specimens and kindly lent to us by the Curator of the Bolus Herbarium for reproduction.
Description:—An erect glabrous plant 1·5 mm. or more high. Leaves ascending or almost erect, 35 cm. long, 4 cm. broad, ensiform, with about 13 primary nerves; radical leaves about 4; cauline leaves about 10. Peduncle up to 15 cm. long clasped by the uppermost leaf which is reduced to 6 cm. long. Inflorescence racemose with the branches divaricate and the flowering axis flexuose, moderately dense with the flowers secund, at length perpendicular to the axis. Bracts 3-5 mm. long, oblong, acute, the younger herbaceous; bracteoles almost joined to their apices, acute, equalling the bracts. Perianth 3-3·5 cm. long; tube 1·8 cm. long, 1·5 mm. in diameter at the base, 5 mm. in diameter above, infundibuliform; segments at length spreading, ovate-oblong, obtuse; the outer 1·3 cm. long, 5 mm. broad; the inner 1·5 cm. long, 6 mm. broad; the uppermost 1·7 cm. long, 7 mm. broad. Stamens more or less curved; filaments 1·3 cm. long; anthers 5-7 mm. long. Style 2·3 cm. long; branches 5 mm. long. Capsule 8 mm. long, subglobose, obtusely 3-angled. Seeds many, 4 mm. long, subtriangular.
[Plate 94.]—Fig. 1, whole plant (reduced); Fig. 2, flower laid open; Fig. 3, fruit; Fig. 4, seed × 2.
F.P.S.A., 1923.