Xerophyta connata, a distinctive new species from the mountainous northwest of Madagascar, is described and illustrated. Its morphology and anatomy are compared to those of other members of the Velloziaceae. Among recent collections from the Manongarivo Massif in northwestern Madagascar are specimens of an undescribed member of the Velloziaceae found covering sandstone outcrops along a small river. Xerophyta connata McPherson & van der Werff, sp. nov. TYPE: Madagascar. Antsiranana: Manongarivo Massif, E of Ankaramy, 1100 m, 14o05'S, 48020'E, 16 Oct. 1994, McPherson & van der Werff 16374 (holotype, MO; isotype, TAN). Figure 1. Species madagascariensis septentrionalis antheris connatis corona evidenti inflorescentia glabra eglandulata facile distinguenda. Plants sprawling, branched, forming a loose, tufted mat, the erect portions of the stem up to ca. 20 cm high (excluding flowers). Branches ca. 1 cm diam. at the level of the intact leaf bases, the lower portions covered by old, frayed, fibrous leaf bases. Leaves of flowering branches 8-14 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, apex acute, a curved line of disarticulation usually evident near the base, both surfaces and the margins sparsely pubescent, the pubescence somewhat scale-like at first, eventually becoming more hair-like, margin thickened and minutely denticulate, at least distally, each tooth capped by a hair or the remnants of one. Flowers 1-2(-3) together, arising from the rosette of leaves terminating each branch; pedicels 17-27 cm long, ca. 1.5 mm diam., glabrous. Perianth rotate, pinkpurple with yellow at throat, deeply lobed, the hypanthial tube ca. 2 mm long, glabrous, the tepals acute, glabrous, conspicuously veined, the outer ones 18-32 mm long, 4-8 mm wide, the inner ones 19-28 mm long, 7-10.5 mm wide; corona 14-20lobed, minutely papillose, the lobes 1-1.5 mm long, fused basally, 0.5-1.5 mm wide, obtuse or acuteacuminate apically, inserted at the rim of the hypanthial tube; stamens 6, the filaments 1-1.3 mm long, narrowly winged and somewhat flattened, inserted slightly below the rim of the hypanthial tube and below the coronal lobes, reflexed (i.e., sloping downward into the hypanthial tube), free from one another, sub-basifixed (i.e., each filament attached to the abaxial surface of an anther very near its base but the fused anther sacs extending ca. 0.5 mm below the attachment point); anthers erect, 913 mm long, those opposite the outer perianth members extending 1-1.5 mm further than the others, introrse, connate into a tubular structure 3-4 mm diam.; ovary 4-5 mm long, ca. 4 mm diam., terete, glabrous, 3-locular, multiovulate; style 1521 mm long, ca. 0.5 mm diam., the terminal 1.53 mm slightly thicker than the lower portion and bearing three elongate stigmatic regions; fruit unknown. At the time it was collected, this plant was assumed to belong to the genus Xerophyta, the only genus of Velloziaceae reported from the island (Perrier, 1950) and one represented by many species on mainland Africa (Smith & Ayensu, 1975). Closer study revealed that the new species possesses two features that distance it somewhat from typical members of that genus. First, the anthers of the recently collected species are connate into a narrow tube, a condition apparently elsewhere unknown within the family. Second, the perianth tube bears an evident corona (sensu Jackson, 1971: any body which intervenes between the corolla and stamens), in this case, a lobed ring of thickened tissue at the rim of the hypanthial tube, and thus between the tepals and the stamens. Well-developed coronas had hitherto been attributed to the Brazilian genus Barbacenia and its close relatives but to no Old World members of this family (Perrier, 1946; Smith & Ayensu, 1976; Menezes, 1980a). In fact, the absence of a corona is given by Menezes (1980a) as one of the two features defining her version of the subfamily Vellozioideae (the other feature, that of having a single leaf vascular bundle sheath, is discussed below), which includes Xerophyta. However, in at least such Xerophyta species as X. splendens (Rendle) N. L. Menezes, there exist structures that may be homologous to the coronal lobes of the Madagascan collection. These ligules NovoN 7: 387-394. 1997. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.108 on Fri, 17 Jun 2016 06:20:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms