Populations until now treated as Anomatheca laxa that occur along the coast of northern Natal and southern Mozambique are referred to a new subspecies azurea. These plants differ in their pale blue perianth with dark blue to violet markings and in their generally smaller flowers with a fairly long perianth tube. Subspecies azurea flowers in the cool months, June to mid-September, and is restricted to sandy soils, unlike typical redto pink-flowered subspecies laxa, which flowers mainly from November to February, and is largely montane, favoring rocky sites. Whiteto pale blue-flowered plants with dark blue to violet or purple marks on the lower tepals currently included in Anomatheca laxa (Thunberg) Goldblatt, one of five species currently admitted to this tropical and southern African genus (Goldblatt, 1972, 1991), have long seemed awkwardly placed. Except for flower color, however, there seemed little to separate the whiteto pale blue-flowered individuals from typical A. laxa, which has pink to red flowers with dark red blotches at the bases of the three lower (anterior) tepals. Examination of additional specimens of the blue-flowered plants in preparation for a treatment of Iridaceae for Flora Zambesiaca (Goldblatt, in press) indicates a need for their taxonomic recognition, and they are described here as subspecies azurea. Typical Anomatheca laxa [Syn. Lapeirousia cruenta Lindley; Anomatheca cruenta (Lindley) Baker], extends from the Uitenhage District in the southeastern Cape (South Africa), probably the type locality, through eastern tropical Africa to Uganda and western Kenya (Fig. 1). The range is, however, discontinuous, and A. laxa evidently does not occur in Zimbabwe, central and northern Mozambique, or southern Malawi, although it is present in central and northern Zambia, Shaba Province (Zaire), and southern Tanzania. Further north it is restricted to the mountains of eastern and northern Uganda and western Kenya. Plants generally favor rocky sites in light shade in mountain areas, but in South Africa they occasionally occur close to sea level. Related, and the only other tropical member of the genus, A. grandifiora Baker, which extends from the Transvaal (South Africa) to southern Tanzania, occurs in light woodland and open savanna, habitats generally drier than those favored by A. laxa. In contrast to the wide geographic range of subspecies laxa, subspecies azurea is restricted to coastal habitats in southeastern Africa from Richards Bay, Natal, in the south to Massinga, Mozambique, in the north (Fig. 1). As far as we know, subspecies azurea always grows in coarse sand, either in exposed sites such as grassy dunes or sometimes in light shade. Also, unlike subspecies laxa these coastal plants only flower in the winter and early spring, June to September. Occasionally its flowering overlaps with that of subspecies laxa, which has been Figure 1. Distribution of Anomatheca laxa. Closed circles = subspecies laxa; broken line = subspecies azurea. NOVON 3: 145-147. 1993. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.60 on Thu, 21 Apr 2016 07:37:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms