Two new species of Moraea Mill. (Iridaceae: Iridoideae) from the southern African winter rainfall area

Abstract

Moraea atromontana Goldblatt & J.C.Manning and M. cistiflora Goldblatt & J.C.Manning (Iridaceae: Iridoideae: Irideae) are two recently discovered species of this African and Eurasian genus of some 233 species. Both are members of subg. Vieusseuxia, and narrow endemics of the southern African winter rainfall zone in the Western Cape, South Africa. Moraea atromontana from the Swartberg near Calitzdorp, with a solitary leaf and derived, 3-lobed inner tepals, is morphologically similar to M. algoensis Goldblatt and M. unguicularis Ker Gawl. but differs in its larger, white flowers with a distinctive dark blue streak on the tepal claws, inner tepal limbs with a laxly spreading central cusp and short, downcurved lateral lobes, and much longer filament column; and M. cistiflora from the middle slopes of the Waaihoek Mtns near Wolseley, stands out in the section in its bowl-shaped flowers with subequal inner and outer tepals, white perianth with dark central eye, relatively long filament column with broad, spreading style branches and crests, and long capsules.