Wurmbea burrowsii D. Oosthuizen & K. Balkwill 2019, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Oosthuizen, D.
name: Balkwill, K.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Liliopsida
Liliales
Colchicaceae
Wurmbea
Wurmbea burrowsii

description: 1. Wurmbea burrowsii D. Oosthuizen & K. Balkwill, sp. nov. Type: South Africa. Mpumalanga, Mashishing (2530): about 17 km east of Lydenburg, access road to Mount Anderson, on the farm Formosa 203JT, 1968 m (-BA), 18 Feb 2001, Burrows 7307 (J, holo.; BNRH, LYD, PRE, iso.).
Summer growing geophyte reaching 160 mm high. Corm oblong-ovoid to subglobose, 8–12 mm × 5 mm, tunics brown, produced into a narrow submembranous, flimsy neck 10–40 mm long. Stem green sometimes light brownish-maroon above the sheaths, 90–120 mm long from the corm to the upper leaf, 1 mm diam. Basal leaves 1 or 2, alternate, usually erect and somewhat flexuous, green, narrowly linear, 160 × 1.0– 1.5 mm, with faint parallel veins; apex long attenuate; margin involute to make leaves appear subterete, entire; base broad, sheathing. Cauline leaves 2, usually erect and somewhat flexuous, indistinctly many-veined; apex attenuate; margin involute to make leaves appear subterete, entire; lower cauline leaf inserted about the middle of the stem, 50–100 mm long, with sheath portion 15–30 mm long; upper cauline leaf inserted about three quarters up the stem, 10–40 mm long, with sheath portion 10–20 mm long. In fl orescence spicate, 3–8-flowered; peduncle 15–20 mm long; rachis 20–30 mm long, somewhat stout with flowers spaced (1–) 2–8 mm apart. Perianth 4–5 mm long; tepals 6, each with 3 veins running from the tip to the base; tube white flushed cream without, white within, broadly cylindric, gradually widening upwards, 1.0– 1.5 mm long and 2.0– 2.5 mm broad at the throat; lobes strongly clawed, diverging, 3–4 mm long; claws white flushed cream without, white within; limbs white, sometimes flushed greenish cream without, with a distinct, deep purple, transversely reniform bilobed patch distal to the attachment of the filament, narrowly trullate, 3 × 0.6–0.7 mm, acute, margins sometimes involute. Nectary distinctly raised, distal to point of attachment of filament, 0.2–0.3 mm long, white proximally; distal face at about 45̊ to the tepal surface and within the purple blotch on the tepal. Filaments white, straight, 0.8 mm long. Anthers golden yellow to brownish yellow with age, dorsifixed, rounded - oblong, 0.5 × 0.2 mm. Pistil ovary light green or sometimes with the outer edges dark purplish red, oblong-elliptic, 2–3 mm long; styles 3, cream, conical, subulate, 1–2 mm long; stigmas suberect, small, capitate. Capsule oblong to oblong-ovoid, 3- angled, 5–6 × 2.0– 2.5 mm. Seeds ellipsoid, slightly compressed, 0.7 mm long, 0.5 mm in diam., brown with reticulate surface and with a short obtuse beak at one end. Figs. 1, 3A, 4.
Etymology: Named for John Burrows (Glen and Germishuizen, 2010) who first collected the species in 2001. John has been the Managing Trustee of Buffelskloof Private Nature Reserve near Lydenburg in 1988. He started BNRH in 1990 and it now contains 15,000 of his collections and a total of more than 22,000 specimens, making it the largest herbarium in Mpumalanga. He has co-authored several peer reviewed botanical papers on trees, (Burrows, 2008; Burrows and Burrows, 2009, 2010), ferns (Burrows, 1989, 1999; Burrows and Edwards, 1993), Asparagus L. (Burrows and Burrows, 2008) and ecology (Maurin et al., 2014) as well as books (Burrows and Burrows, 2003; Crouch et al., 2011). Together with his wife, Sandie, and two colleagues he has compiled a comprehensive book on the trees & shrubs of Mozambique, which covers about 1800 species (Burrows et al., 2018).
Diagnostic characters: Wurmbea burrowsii is similar to W. elatior in having a purple bilobed patch on the distal face of the nectary (Figs. 1C–E) and the pistils with similar colouring (green with a purplish tinge). It differs from W. elatior in being nearly a quarter its size. The leaves of W. elatior are nearly double the length of those of W. burrowsii and the former carries two leaves from a basal sheath whereas W. burrowsii has an additional middle leaf instead of only a basal and an upper leaf. The flowers of W. burrowsii are smaller than those of W. elatior and the spike also carries half the number of flowers of W. elatior. Wurmbea angustifolia is taller (200 mm) than W. burrowsii (160 mm) and has a solitary basal leaf compared to the one or two of W. burrowsii. The limbs of the tepals of W. angustifolia can be twice as wide as those of W. burrowsii and the filaments twice as long.
Distribution and habitat: So far this species has only been collected on and in the vicinity of Mount Anderson near Mashishing (Fig.4), which is part of the Drakensberg Escarpment and Wolkberg Centre of Plant Endemism (Van Wyk and Smith, 2001). It grows in Lydenburg Montane Grassland (Gm 18) (Mucina and Rutherford, 2006) in well drained to damp, humus rich sandy soils exposed to full sun, at altitudes of 1950–2250 m (Fig. 1A).
Phenology: All flowering specimens have been collected in February, but it is likely that flowering continues into March.
Conservation notes: Wurmbea burrowsii is known from two localities close to each other and with an extent of occurrence and area of occupancy in the region of 7 km 2. Most of the known distribution range is within the Mount Anderson Nature Reserve, a protected area, which appears to be well managed with no obvious signs of encroachment by weeds. Wurmbea burrowsii is a small plant that is dispersed but frequent in both moist and mesic grassland at these localities, so there are likely to be at least hundreds of individuals. On the basis of the limited extent of occurrence and area of occupancy, a provisional threat status of Vulnerable D2 is assigned (IUCN, 2012).
3.3. Additional specimens seen
South Africa. MPUMALANGA: 2530 (Lydenburg): Mashishing district, Mount Anderson Nature Reserve, Mount Prospect 159JT, 2112 m (– BA), 12 Feb 2017, Oosthuizen & L ӧtter 2380 (BMLH); Mauchsberg on the farm Lot C 204JT, 2200 m (– BA), 10 Feb 2018, Oosthuizen 2913 (BMLH, J).
description: Published as part of Oosthuizen, D. & Balkwill, K., 2019, Wurmbea (Colchicaceae, Anguillarieae) in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, including the description of two new species *, pp. 117-123 in South African Journal of Botany 127 on pages 120-121, DOI: 10.1016/j.sajb.2019.08.050, http://zenodo.org/record/10496719