''Pseudoprospero'' is a
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
bulb
In botany, a bulb is a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...
ous flowering plants in the
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Asparagaceae
Asparagaceae (), known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, '' Asparagus officinalis''. This family includes both ...
, subfamily
Scilloideae
Scilloideae (named after the genus ''Scilla'', "squill") is a subfamily of bulbous plants within the family ''Asparagaceae''. Scilloideae is sometimes treated as a separate family Hyacinthaceae, named after the genus ''Hyacinth (plant), Hyacinthus ...
(also treated as the family Hyacinthaceae).
[Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards),]
Asparagales: Scilloideae
, ''Angiosperm Phylogeny Website'', retrieved 2013-04-12 The genus has a single species ''Pseudoprospero firmifolium'',
which is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
(the
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...
,
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...
).
Description
''Pseudoprospero firmifolium'' grows from an underground
bulb
In botany, a bulb is a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...
whose tunic has dry, paper-like outer layers. The channelled linear leaves are evergreen. The flowers are borne in a loose many-flowered
raceme
A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...
, which usually has a side branch. Individual flowers have white to lilac
tepal
A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...
s which are joined at the base and persist into the fruiting stage. The
stamen
The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10
Morphology and terminology
A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...
s are more-or-less erect, with filaments joined at the base to the tepals and to each other. The seeds are black.
Systematics
From the 1970s onwards,
Franz Speta and co-workers split up the broadly defined genus ''
Scilla
''Scilla'' () is a genus of about 30 to 80 species of bulb-forming perennial plant, perennial herbaceous plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. Sometimes called the squills in English, they are native to woodlands, subalpine ...
'', placing many of its species into separate genera.
One of these genera was ''Pseudoprospero'', created by Speta in 1998 for the former ''Scilla firmifolia''.
[ Subsequent studies have confirmed that ''Pseudoprospero firmifolium'' is distinct not only from ''Scilla'' but from all other genera in the tribe Hyacintheae (or the subfamily Hyacinthoideae for those who accept the family Hyacinthaceae),][ place ''Pseudoprospero'' as the sole genus in the family Hyacinthaceae, subfamily Hyacinthoideae, tribe Pseudoprospereae, equivalent to the classification family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, tribe Hyacintheae, subtribe "Pseudoprosperinae", although this last name appears not to have been published.]
Subspecies
Two subspecies are recognised:[
* ''Pseudoprospero firmifolium'' subsp. ''firmifolium'' – Cape Province
* ''Pseudoprospero firmifolium'' subsp. ''natalensis'' J.C.Manning – KwaZulu-Natal
]
Chemistry
The following five homoisoflavanones can be isolated from the dichloromethane extract of the bulbs of ''P. firmifolium'':
Notes
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q14772077
Monotypic Asparagaceae genera
Scilloideae
Flora of the Cape Provinces
Flora of KwaZulu-Natal
Endemic flora of South Africa
Taxa named by John Gilbert Baker
Taxa named by Franz Speta
Plants described in 1870