Neil R. Crouch

In the course of field work in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa a species of Bulbine was encountered growing on shaded cliff ledges in Scarp Forest. This species shows a distinct syndrome of morphological characters not previously reported in the genus, both vegetatively and in respect of floral characters. This character suite, along with phytogeographical evidence, supports the recognition of B. pauciflora as a new species. We present a morphological description of this new taxon, as well as data on its ecology and distribution in the context of the ethnobotany and bioculture of the genus in the Eastern Cape. The species is compared to some Eastern Cape bulbines with which it grows sympatrically or near-sympatrically, and is comprehensively illustrated.

The epithet “ladysmithiensis”, as it was originally spelled in the name published for a South African endemic leaf succulent, i.e., as Cotyledon ladysmithiensis (Crassulaceae [subfam. Cotyledonoideae] tr. Cotyledoneae), should indeed be spelled like that and not be ‘corrected’ to ‘ladismithensis’, nor to ‘ladismithiensis’, two variant spellings often encountered in the hardcopy and electronic literature. Cotyledon ladysmithiensis, which, in 1936, was published as a replacement name for the illegitimate C. heterophylla Schönland (1907), non Roxb. (1832), has been treated at the rank of subspecies under C. tomentosa for the past 50 years. However, C. ladysmithiensis is here reinstated as an accepted species based on several vegetative and reproductive characters. The nomenclature and correct taxonomic application of the name C. ladysmithiensis, with respect to C. tomentosa, is discussed. The typification of the name C. ladysmithiensis is discussed. The cultivar C. tomentosa ‘Cloak-and-Dagger’ is described.

A new aquatic species, Crassula tanzae (Crassulaceae subfam. Crassuloideae), is described from high altitude tarns and pans in the south-central Maloti-Drakensberg of South Africa and neighbouring Lesotho, to which region it is restricted. This new taxon is allied to C. natans, from which it is readily separable on a combination of vegetative and reproductive characters. A key diagnostic character of C. tanzae is its substantially swollen and short-internoded basal stem portion, with nodes along this stem section conspicuously constricted, and adjacent internodes bulging. The typification of the name C. natans is corrected.

Because of the usually devastating environmental and economic impacts of escaped, naturalised, and invasive alien plant taxa, including on human livelihoods, their early detection in natural as well as in human-made landscapes has the advantage of facilitating suitable eradication responses. In this paper we report on Hylotelephium ×mottramianum ‘Herbstfreude’, which is for the first time recorded as having escaped into natural vegetation in South Africa. To aid its identification, this cultivar is illustrated and biological and descriptive data provided on it, including about its mode of reproduction.

Only for the past ca. 50 years has the genus-rank circumscription of Cotyledon (Crassulaceae [subfam. Cotyledonoideae] tr. Cotyledoneae), one of the first crassuloid genera recognised by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, reached reasonable stability. The genus, as circumscribed by Hellmut R. Tölken in 1978 and as such still widely accepted, includes fewer than 30 species, most of which are naturally restricted to South Africa. Cotyledon is present in the winter-rainfall, western parts of the country with a Mediterranean-type climate; in the climatically severe interior above the near-coastal escarpment; and in the mild-climate, subtropical eastern and northeastern parts. In the latter two instances, rainfall is recorded all-year round or predominantly in summer. A number of new cotyledons, such as C. nielsii and C. mckayi, were recently described from the third area, i.e. the eastern subtropics of South Africa. A further new species of Cotyledon from eastern South Africa is here described, as Cotyledon turlandii. With thin, weak, pendent stems; very narrow, apically recurved leaves that are longitudinally upwards-folded along the margin; and large, near-evenly cylindrical corolla tubes, the species can be easily separated from congeners such as C. orbiculata var. oblonga, which has a very broad current circumscription and natural geographical distribution range. The new species is illustrated, along with other cotyledons that grow in its proximity. Nomenclatural notes are provided on the name C. zuluensis, and a correction to its typification is published here.

Our field exploration in South Africa revealed an undescribed species of Trimelopter, sharing diagnostic characters of the genus, including a single flattened leaf, tepals thick-textured, with a darker longitudinal central band, visible on both sides and associated with three to five aggregated medial veins and ovary trilobed in transversal section, each lobe, which corresponds to one carpel, showing two longitudinal, prominent keels, giving a six angled appearance. However, the new species clearly differs from the currently known species in the genus by distinct morphological characters, such as the filaments distinctly pinched along the middle, the ovary showing very prominent winged keels, comparatively large capsules that are distinctly winged, and large seeds. Here we describe Trimelopter pterocarpum, a new species based on plants occurring in karroid regions in southern-central South Africa east of Xamdeboo [Aberdeen]. A complete morphological description of the new species as well as data on ecology, distribution and differences with related species is provided.

Fieldwork in southern Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, enabled the discovery of a succulent-leaved, cremnophytic Trachyandra (Asphodelaceae: Asphodeloideae) species that shows a distinct syndrome of morphological characters not previously reported in the genus, especially in respect of defining vegetative characters. The new species, T. carnifolia, is assigned to T. sect. Liriothamnus, based on a combination of floral and fruiting characters, and is evidently closely related to T. reflexipilosa, another component of savanna vegetation in Zululand. We provide a complete morphological description and illustrations of T. carnifolia, as well as data on its ecology and distribution.

Based on morphological and ecological grounds, and its reproductive strategy, Eucomis nubigena is here described. This is a diminutive new dwarf species found at high elevations in both South Africa and Lesotho, limited in distribution to the Maloti Alpine Sub-centre of the Drakensberg Mountain Centre. This cryptic geophyte is restricted to basaltic substrates, growing in full sun in shallow pockets of gravel overlying basalt pavements. It is easily differentiated from its closest relatives based on its overall diminutive size, the production of flowers that are exclusively cleistogamous and autogamous rather than chasmogamous and entomophilous, and its prominently succulent coma bracts. Eucomis nubigena is the first species in a widely distributed family of ca. 1000 species to be documented as cleistogamous, and the first genus member to exhibit basal placentation. A complete illustration and morphological description of the new species are provided, including data regarding its biology, ecology, and distribution. The relationship of E. nubigena to other genus members is assessed.

A new species of Kalanchoe (Crassulaceae [subfam. Cotyledonoideae] tr. Kalanchoeae; K. subg. Kalanchoe), namely Kalanchoe olivierae, is described from eastern South Africa. Kalanchoe olivierae differs from K. rotundifolia, under which name material of the new species has thus far been placed, in vegetative and reproductive characters, with, inter alia vegetatively, its leaves being considerably bigger, elliptic-ovate to somewhat spathulate in outline, and basally distinctly guttered. Plants of the new species are often unbranched and can reach a height of over 1 m when in flower, while K. rotundifolia is a low-growing, often branched shrublet. The flowers of K. olivierae are larger than those of K. rotundifolia, and usually a pinkish orange colour, rather than uniformly dull red to orange. Kalanchoe olivierae is also contrasted with K. steyniae, which is a low-growing shrublet with bright crimson flowers. All three species are illustrated.

As circumscribed at present, Cotyledon (Crassulaceae subfam. Cotyledonoideae) is a small genus of about two dozen species. For the species and infraspecific taxa recognised in Cotyledon, almost 100 names are available. This resulted from the naming, especially at the rank of species, of the extraordinary natural variability of at least some of the recognised Cotyledon taxa. In some of the Cotyledon species upheld at present, a range of taxa are treated at the rank of varietas. For example, in C. orbiculata, four varieties are recognised in addition to the autonymic one. Horticulturally popular undulate leaf-margined variants of C. orbiculata, as attributed at present, were described as C. mucronata by J-B.P.A. de M. de Lamarck in 1786 and later redescribed as C. undulata by A.H. Haworth in 1819, with, in the protologues of both these names, a plate (and only that plate) published by Johannes [Johan] Burman in 1738 being unambiguously cited. Yet, C. mucronata was most recently placed in the synonymy of the autonymic C. orbiculata var. orbiculata and C. undulata in the synonymy of C. orbiculata var. oblonga. In this paper the nomenclature and taxonomy associated with these two names are revisited and clarified. We show that the two names, i.e., C. mucronata and C. undulata, are homotypic and that the name C. undulata is illegitimate and nomenclaturally superfluous. If the undulate-leaf margined variant of the broadly defined C. orbiculata is recognised at the rank of species—a view we implement here—the name to adopt is C. mucronata. The name C. undulata belongs in the synonymy of C. mucronata.