''Strumaria chaplinii'' is a
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of
bulbous
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 ...
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...
in the family
Amaryllidaceae
The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus '' Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryl ...
, native to south-west
Cape Provinces
The Cape Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 27 Southern Africa. The area has the code "CPP". It includes the Sou ...
. It was first described in 1944 as ''Hessea chaplinii''.
[
]
Description
''Strumaria chaplinii'' is a very small plant. The upper leaf surfaces are hairy. The flowers are star-shaped, with 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 that have flat faces, unlike similar species such as '' Strumaria discifera''. Like other species of ''Strumaria'', the flowers are borne in an umbel
UMBEL (Upper Mapping and Binding Exchange Layer) is a logically organized knowledge graph of 34,000 concepts and entity types that can be used in information science for relating information from disparate sources to one another. It was retired ...
on long pedicels
In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence
In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branch ...
.[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first described as ''Hessea chaplinii'' in 1944 by Winsome Fanny Barker
Winsome Fanny Barker (23 September 1907 – 27 December 1994) was a South African botanist and plant collector noted for her work as Curator building the collection at the herbarium of the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, as well as her r ...
. It was transferred to ''Strumaria'' in 1994.[
]
Distribution and habitat
''Strumaria chaplinii'' is native to the south-west Cape Provinces
The Cape Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 27 Southern Africa. The area has the code "CPP". It includes the Sou ...
of South Africa.[ It grows in moist pockets at the base of granite rocks in coastal ]fynbos
Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...
.[
]
Gallery
File:Strumaria chaplinii flowering Kew 1.jpg, Strumaria chaplinii flowering in Davies Alpine House, Kew
File:Strumaria chaplinii Kew 3 single flower in profile.jpg, Single flower (enlarged) in profile
File:Strumaria chaplinii 15514185.jpg, Villous foliage
References
chaplinii
Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces
Plants described in 1944
{{Amaryllidaceae-stub