Miraglossum davyi

Miraglossum davyi, previously scientifically Schizoglossum davyi, is a perennial growing annual flowering shoots from an underground tuber as storage organ, therefore a geophyte. The plant contains a milky sap, a member of the Apocynaceae family. The hairy, erect stems are unbranched. The long, narrow leaves are short-stalked, channelled, grey green and very hairy to woolly.

The long-stalked, grey green flowers nod in clusters from stem tips and upper leaf axils. The calyx is hairy, smaller than the corolla, its lobes narrowly triangular ending in acutely pointed tips. The olive green corolla lobes or petals are elliptic, concave inside with acute tips. The corona arising from the staminal column has five thick, fleshy, white lobes alternating with the petals of the corolla. The fruit follicles are hairy.

The species distribution is in Mpumalanga, from around Middelburg to Dullstroom and Standerton.

The habitat is grassland, the soils sandy or heavy black loam. The habitat population is deemed vulnerable early in the twenty first century, due to habitat loss (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist; https://powo.science.kew.org); https://www.worldfloraonline.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).