Hexacyrtis dickiana
| Hexacyrtis dickiana | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Hexacyrtis | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Hexacyrtis dickiana | ||||||||||||
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Hexacyrtis dickiana is the only species of the plant genus Hexacyrtis withinthe timeless family (Colchicaceae).
description
Appearance and leaf
The plants grow as a deciduous, perennial herbaceous plant . As a storage organ , this geophyte forms a subterranean, rather deep-seated, stem axis tuber. A 20 to 40 centimeter long, underground stem sprouts from this tuber and forms a leaf rosette with 5 to 7 leaves above the ground. The linear-lanceolate basal sheets are 20 to 40 centimeters long and 12 to 13 millimeters wide. They are shaped like a channel and have a semicircular cross-section. The leaf surface, which is covered with clear leaf veins, is sticky and the leaves are therefore often stuck together with drifting sand.
blossom
A 30 to 50 centimeter high, round inflorescence stalk is formed, which reaches 5 to 6 millimeters in diameter. In the lower, unbranched part of the stem there are individual lanceolate leaves up to 10 centimeters long with tubular sheaths encompassing the stem. The inflorescence stalk branches into up to 16 inflorescence branches in the upper third.
The inflorescence is composed of 4 to 6 partial inflorescences, each of which forms a stalk of 3 to 10 centimeters and bears 2 to 6 individual flowers. At the base of the stalk there are 3 to 4 bracts , about 2 centimeters long and 5 to 10 millimeters wide . The nodding single flowers sit on 4 to 5 centimeters long, finely grooved stems. The flat bell-shaped and greenish purple flowers reach a diameter of up to 3.5 centimeters. The very protruding stamens are up to 10 millimeters long. The rectangular anthers are up to 6 millimeters long, 2.5 millimeters wide and tear open lengthways.
fruit
Cross-ribbed capsule fruits are formed that are 2.5 centimeters long and 1.5 centimeters wide. They end bluntly, are three-lobed and turn brownish when ripe. It develops 1.2 millimeter, red-brown, cube-shaped and wrinkled seeds.
Occurrence
Hexacyrtis dickiana is distributed on the coast of Namibia and in the far north of South Africa exclusively on sandy soils. It is endemic to the southern and central Namib .
Systematics
The first description of the species Hexacyrtis dickiana and the genus Hexacyrtis was made in 1932 by Kurt Dinter in Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis , Volume 30.
The specific epithet is named after a Mr. Dick, a director of a diamond mine, from whom Dinter got the first parts of the plant.
swell
- Erik B. Sondey: The timeless in the desert - Hexacyrtis dickiana Dinter (Namib lily) with special consideration of location aspects , in Avonia Volume 36, 2018, Issue 1, pp. 18–31, ISSN 1615-0805
Individual evidence
- ^ Repertory Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis. Centralblatt for the collection and publication of individual diagnoses of new plants , Volume 30, pp. 84–85, Berlin 1932, online ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
