Romulea fischeri Pax

Manning, John C. & Goldblatt, Peter, 2001, the Arabian Peninsula and Socotra including new species, biological notes, and a new infrageneric classification, Adansonia (3) 23 (1), pp. 59-108 : 74

3. Romulea fischeri Pax

Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 15: 150 (1892); Goldblatt, Fl.

Trop. E. Africa, Iridaceae : 35 (1996); Fl. Somalia

4: 65 (1995). — Type: Fischer 587, Kenya, Aberdare

Mts., Abori (holo-, B!).

Romulea purpurascens var. edulis W. Herbert ex Baker, J. Linn. Soc. 16: 87 (1878). — Types: Schweinfurth 580 (syn-, B), Socotra, Haghier hills; Nimmo s.n. (syn-, not seen); Wellsted s.n. (syn-, not seen); syn. nov.

Plants 8-40 cm, stem subterranean; corm obliquely pointed with a narrow basal ridge. Leaves 2-5, filiform, narrowly 4-grooved, c. 1 mm diam.; outer bracts with narrow membranous margins, inner bracts with broad brown-flecked membranous margins. Flowers purple to violet or white with a yellow cup, tepals elliptic, 10-16 mm long; filaments 3-4 mm long, anthers c. 3 mm long. Flowering: Mainly Aug.-Dec.

Romulea fischeri occurs in stony or grassy plateaus and alpine seeps in the eastern African highlands of Kenya and Ethiopia as well as in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Socotra in the east. Evidently closely related to the more widespread Romulea camerooniana , R. fischeri is distinguished from that species most easily by the outer floral bracts, which have narrow membranous margins and inner bracts with broad membranous margins. The outer bracts of R. camerooniana have hardly visibly membranous margins and the inner bracts have only narrow membranous margins. Until now collections of Romulea from Socotra have been associated with the Mediterranean R. purpurascens as var. edulis ( BALFOUR 1888; FORBES 1903) but we have examined plants from that island and find that they differ in no significant way from the East African R. fischeri , which also occurs in Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula, except for a perianth that is darker purple rather than pink to light purple. The bracts match those of R. fischeri in their relatively broad membranous margins while the inner bracts have fairly broad membranous margins flecked with brown.