Sparaxis
Three-color Fransenschwertel ( Sparaxis tricolor)
Sparaxis is a plant genus of the family of Iris Family ( Iridaceae ). It comprises thirteen occurring exclusively in South Africa species.
Description
Sparaxis are perennial, herbaceous plants. They grow from small round tubers which are rooted at the base, the tubers are protected by a fine up to hard, fibrous sheath. The bare stem is firm, thick and nearly upright, either unbranched or branching at the base or just above it, then find themselves occasionally in his lower axils large or numerous in all daughter tubers armpits. The leaves are usually at the base, rarely also the stem is leafy. The lowest two to three leaves are sheath-like, membranous -leaves, the other leaves are lanceolate to linear or crescent- shaped, bald and with protruding midrib and numerous fine, closely spaced side ribs.
The inflorescence consists of a few to several (rarely solitary ) flowers in a loose spike, distich as buds, approximately spirally at flowering time. The bracts are trockenhäutig and knitterig, pale and streaked with brown, single slotted, or slotted to slightly deep.
The flowers are actinomorphic or zygomorphic, in the latter case only the stamens are arranged either asymmetrically or the perianth, then the upper Blütenhüllblatt is often enlarged and dome -shaped and the bottom three are the smallest bloom. The bloom are lanceolate to obovate or spatulate, and at the end pointed or blunt. The flower tube is either funnel-shaped, to approach rather cylindrical and extended widening or far upwards above the bracteoles out and dimorphic, cylindrical in the lower part, then bent abruptly and thereafter; widening itself.
The stamens are at the base of the throat, the enlarged flower tube that is attached and arranged either symmetrically or asymmetrically. The filaments are filamentary, straight and surround the stylus, or bent outwards, or all three filaments are disposed over the enlarged Blütenhüllblatt. The anthers are straight, curved or spiral fixed and almost at the base. The ovary is ovoid, the style filiform, straight and upright, or one-sided. The capsule is barrel-shaped to oblong - round and can be fixed by its outer skin discern the contours of the seeds. The tray will find 4 to 15 round, relatively large and shiny seeds with a smooth surface.
The basic chromosome number is x = 10
Dissemination
The genus is found only in South Africa in the south-western Cape, the southern Namaqualand and the western part of the Karoo.
System
The genus consists of thirteen species and is divided into two sections, which differ mainly in the fact that the species of section Sparaxis have actinomorphic flowers and the section Synnotia zygomorphe flowers. The section Synnotia in 1826 described as a distinct genus, Peter Goldblatt they presented in 1991 but to Sparaxis.
- Section Sparaxis Nodule Fransenschwertel ( Sparaxis bulbifera (L.) Ker Gawl. )
- Sparaxis elegans ( Sweet) Goldblatt
- Sparaxis fragrans ( Jacq. ) Ker Gawl.
- Großblütiges Fransenschwertel ( Sparaxis grandiflora F. Delaroche ) Ker Gawl. )
- Sparaxis maculosa Goldblatt
- Sparaxis pillansii L. Bolus
- Three-color Fransenschwertel ( Sparaxis tricolor ( Schneev. ) Ker Gawl. )
- Section Synnotia Sparaxis caryophyllacea Goldblatt
- Sparaxis galeata Ker Gawl.
- Sparaxis parviflora ( G.J. Lewis) Goldblatt
- Sparaxis roxburghii ( Baker) Goldblatt
- Sparaxis variegata ( Sweet) Goldblatt
- Sparaxis villosa ( Burm. f ) Goldblatt
Evidence
- Peter Goldblatt: Review and Phylogenetic Analysis of Sparaxis. In: Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 79, pp. 143-159, 1992