''Strumaria gemmata'' 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), ...

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 the

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 ...

and the Free State of South Africa. It was first described by

John Bellenden Ker Gawler John Bellenden Ker ( ''Gawler'') was an English botanist, born about 1764, Ramridge, Andover, Hampshire, which was where he died in June 1842. On 5 November 1804, he changed his name to Ker Bellenden, but continued to sign his name as Bellende ...

in 1814.

Description

Members of the genus ''

Strumaria ''Strumaria'' is a genus of African plants in Amaryllidaceae, Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. The genus is known in nature only from South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia. Almost all species flower in the autumn and are cultivated as or ...

'' have flowers in

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 ...

s, typically 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 ...

. ''Strumaria gemmata'' is the only species in the genus with yellowish flowers (the others have white or in a few cases pink flowers). The colour is mainly on the midrib of the

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 channelled and have wavy (crisped) edges. File:Hessea_gemmata2.jpg, Close up of flower

Distribution and habitat

''Strumaria gemmata'' is native to semi-arid areas of the

and the Free State of South Africa.

References

gemmata Flora of the Cape Provinces Flora of the Free State Plants described in 1814 Endemic flora of South Africa {{Amaryllidaceae-stub