Lapeirousia

Lapeirousia is a genus of cormous, deciduous perennials in the Iridaceae family.

The bell-shaped corms are flat-based with roots growing in a ring from the base. The corms may have woody tunics or ones consisting of densely compact fibres.

The annual stem may be underground or above, growing at an angle and compressed or winged. This stem is usually branched, in some species repeatedly. The lowest two or three leaves are cataphylls.

The foliage leaves above them may have midribs, the lowest one is in some cases very long. Some species have only one leaf, while others have several, including stem-leaves grading down in size higher up. The blades are either sword-shaped and smooth to ridged, or cylindrical.

The inflorescence is often a spiralling spike, sometimes branched into a panicle on which the flowers are sessile, while some species bear their flowers in a basal tuft.

The bracts are green or blue-green and firm or soft, sometimes ridged, keeled, crisped or toothed. The inner bract may be smaller than the most-seen outer one and notched or forked at its tip.

The flowers may be radially symmetric and bell-shaped, salver-shaped with flat, spreading lobes or laterally symmetric and two-lipped. The corolla tubes in which the tepals are united, are sometimes cylindrical and short to very long in several species.

Flower colours include white, pink, red, purple or blue, the lower or all tepals marked in contrasting lighter or darker colours. The flowers are sweetly scented or not and produce nectar.

The three stamens may be positioned around the style or together and arched under the dorsal tepal in two-lipped flowers. The filaments emerge from close below the tube mouth, the anthers exserted. The thread-shaped style is exserted and branched, its branches sometimes forked for half their length.

The pollinators of Lapeirousia species include bees, flies, butterflies and moths for short-tubes species, long-tongued flies for the coloured, long-tubed species, while sphinx moths and other moths perform for the pale, fragrant long-tubed species.

The fruit is a membranous to cartilaginous, globose capsule and the seeds globose.

There are 40 species, of which 35 occur in southern Africa, mainly in Namaqualand and the western Karoo; the rest in Africa. Several of the species are called cabong.

The plant in picture was seen at Paardeberg near Riebeek West during October (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Manning, 2007).