''Lapeirousia'' is a genus in the plant family

Iridaceae Iridaceae is a family of plants in order Asparagales, taking its name from the irises, meaning rainbow, referring to its many colours. There are 66 accepted genera with a total of c. 2244 species worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016). It inclu ...

. It is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, about a third of the species occurring in

fynbos Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean clim ...

Origin of the generic name

The genus ''Lapeirousia'' was described by

Pierre André Pourret Pierre André Pourret (1754–1818) was a French abbot and botanist who did research and teaching in France and Spain. He described and collected large amounts of plant species, especially from the Mediterranean, and amassed many species in h ...

in Mém. Acad. Sci. Toulouse 3 : 79 (1788); Bak. In FC. 6 : 88 (1896) in part; Goldblatt in Contrib. Bol. Herb. 4 : 1 (1972); Sölch & Roessl. in FSWA. 155 : 6 (1969). Chasmatocallis Foster in Contrib. Gray Herb. 127 : 40 (1939).Dyer, R. Allen, “The Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants”. , 1975 He named the genus in honour of his friend, the botanist Philippe-Isidore Picot de Lapeyrouse. The inconsistent spellings of that name no doubt led to the original genus name being spelt "Lapeirousia" and contributed to various subsequent misspellings of the genus in various reference sources, notably "Lapeyrousia".Chittenden, Fred J. Ed., Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening, Oxford 1951 There also has been confusion leading to unfounded claims that the genus was named after the French mariner

Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (; variant spelling: ''La Pérouse''; 23 August 17411788?), often called simply Lapérouse, was a French naval officer and explorer. Having enlisted at the age of 15, he had a successful naval caree ...

, who had nothing substantial to do with matters botanical, and was unrelated to de Lapeyrouse.

Description

''Lapeirousia '' are

corm A corm, bulbo-tuber, or bulbotuber is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ that some plants use to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat (perennation). The word ' ...

ous plants, usually small, and with

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

leaves. The corms are small, campanulate to triangular in outline, and flat-based. The

tunic A tunic is a garment for the body, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the knees. The name derives from the Latin ''tunica'', the basic garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Ro ...

s comprise hard, woody layers, of which the innermost layers are entire. The leaves are basal, often solitary. They may be plane and falcate, or linear and ribbed. Various forms of scape occur; they may be either subterranean or aerial, and simple or branched. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are forme ...

is a spike, sometimes contracted and fasciculate or a corymbose panicle. There are firm, green

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or o ...

s, either small and subequal, or with the outer bract very large, often keeled, crisped and ribbed. The

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla ( petals) or tepals when ...

may be either

actinomorphic Floral symmetry describes whether, and how, a flower, in particular its perianth, can be divided into two or more identical or mirror-image parts. Uncommonly, flowers may have no axis of symmetry at all, typically because their parts are spirall ...

zygomorphic Floral symmetry describes whether, and how, a flower, in particular its perianth, can be divided into two or more identical or mirror-image parts. Uncommonly, flowers may have no axis of symmetry at all, typically because their parts are spirall ...

; the tube short or very long. It might be slender and cylindrical, adapted to

pollination Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an Stamen, anther of a plant to the stigma (botany), stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by Anemophily, wind. Pollinating agents can ...

by long-tongued flies, or it might be funnel-shaped. The flowers' lobes may be subequal and spreading, or unequal with upper largest petals erect, the lower three forming a lip. The

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the fila ...

s are symmetrically arranged. The fruit is a membranous capsule containing many small seeds, either globose or angled by pressure.

Distribution

About 26 species have been described from Southern Africa, of which about a third are endemic to

. Common names are various and regional, including ''painted petals'', ''cabong'', ''chabi'', ' (Afrikaans for "wheat flower"). The flowers are commonly scented, though possibly only at certain times of day. * '' Lapeirousia anceps'' (L.f.) Ker Gawl. * '' Lapeirousia angustifolia'' Schltr. * '' Lapeirousia arenicola'' Schltr. * '' Lapeirousia barklyi'' Baker * '' Lapeirousia divaricata'' Baker * '' Lapeirousia dolomitica'' Dinter * '' Lapeirousia exilis'' Goldblatt * '' Lapeirousia fabricii'' (D.Delaroche) Ker Gawl. * '' Lapeirousia jacquinii'' N.E.Br. * '' Lapeirousia kalahariensis'' Goldblatt & J.C.Manning * '' Lapeirousia kamiesmontana'' Goldblatt & J.C.Manning * '' Lapeirousia littoralis'' Baker * '' Lapeirousia macrospatha'' Baker * '' Lapeirousia montana'' Klatt * '' Lapeirousia odoratissima'' Baker * '' Lapeirousia oreogena'' Schltr. ex Goldblatt * '' Lapeirousia plicata'' (Jacq.) Diels * '' Lapeirousia purpurascens'' Goldblatt & J.C.Manning * '' Lapeirousia purpurea'' Goldblatt & J.C.Manning * '' Lapeirousia pyramidalis'' (Lam.) Goldblatt * '' Lapeirousia silenoides'' (Jacq.) Ker Gawl. * '' Lapeirousia simulans'' Goldblatt & J.C.Manning * '' Lapeirousia spinosa'' (Goldblatt) Goldblatt & J.C.Manning * '' Lapeirousia tenuis'' (Goldblatt) Goldblatt & J.C.Manning * '' Lapeirousia verecunda'' Goldblatt * '' Lapeirousia violacea'' Goldblatt

Traditional and current relevance

The plants are of considerable biological and evolutionary interest because of their adaptions to particular pollinators, such as flies in the families Tabanidae,

Acroceridae The Acroceridae are a small family of odd-looking flies. They have a hump-backed appearance with a strikingly small head, generally with a long proboscis for accessing nectar. They are rare and not widely known. The most frequently applied common ...

Bombyliidae The Bombyliidae are a family of flies, commonly known as bee flies. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, some being important pollinators. Larvae are mostly parasitoids of other insects. Overview The Bombyliidae are a large family of fl ...

, and most spectacularly,

Nemestrinidae Nemestrinidae, or tangle-veined flies is a family of flies in the superfamily Nemestrinoidea, closely related to Acroceridae. The family is small but distributed worldwide, with about 300 species in 34 genera. Larvae are endoparasitoids of eith ...

.Kearns, Carol Ann. Flies and Flowers, an Enduring Partnership. Wings, Fall, 2002 Though most species of ''Lapeirousia'' are not showy, they are elegant and often fragrant. Collectors of fynbos plants value them. The corms of several species were important sources of food for early hunter-gatherers. The vernacular names cabong or chabi are derived from Khoisan names for the plants.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5558145 Iridaceae genera Iridaceae