Notes and New Species of Moraea (Iridaceae: Iridoideae) from the Southern African Winter-Rainfall Zone

Abstract

Moraea cantharophila and M. lilacina are new species of the African genus Moraea (ca. 195 species), of subfamily Iridoideae of the Iridaceae. Both species belong to Moraea subg. Vieusseuxia, which comprises 35 species restricted to southern Africa and is centered in the southern African winter-rainfall zone. Moraea cantharophila, from southwestern Western Cape Province, has unusual flowers for the subgenus with entire relatively large inner tepals with a broad dark median streak on the claw. It is distinguished from its closest relative, the fly-pollinated M. lurida, by the shallower floral cup and unscented nectarless flowers. Moraea lilacina, from the northern Langeberg foothills in the Little Karoo of southeastern Western Cape Province, can be distinguished from the related M. unguiculata by its relatively large flower, pink pigmentation, trilobed inner tepals with a long, erect central cusp, and often densely hairy filament column. Nomenclatural adjustments include the reduction of M. neopavonia in M. tulbaghensis and the provision of a new name for the homonym M. flexuosa Goldblatt. Newly discovered populations of M. saxicola and M. rivulicola increase their known geographical ranges and require some adjustment to their delimitation.