Description :

• Evergreen perennial
• Rootstock a depressed globose corm rooting from below, axillary in origin, corms of past seasons not resorbed, tunics fibrous
• Stem erect, aerial, branched above, round in transverse section
• Leaves few, lower 2 or 3 cataphylls; foliage leaves unifacial, without a definite midrib, linear, usually one basal per plant and one or two cauline and smaller, coriaceous and fibrotic
• Inflorescence a panicle, each flower pedunculate, sessile; bracts coriaceous and green with reddish brown margins, mucilaginous on inside, inner ± as long as outer, notched apically
• Flowers actinomorphic, orange, campanulate, unscented, with nectar from septal nectaries; perianth tube short, funnel-shaped
• Tepals subequal, spreading
• Stamens symmetrically disposed around style; filaments arising in throat; anthers exserted; pollen monosulcate, operculate, exine perforate
• Style filiform, exserted, branches notched apically for a quarter to a third of their length
• Capsules obovoid and truncate, woody
• Seeds large and angular, with a chalazal crest, smooth, shiny, surface reticulate-foveate, 1-3 per locule
• x = 20

Classification Notes:

• Although clearly a member of Ixioideae, Pillansia is exceptional in the subfamily in many respects
• The leaves lack a definite midrib and other leaf anatomical characteristics of the subfamily, and the inflorescence is a panicle rather than a spike
• However, Pillansia has the long-lived flower, perianth tube, basally rooting corm, operculate pollen grains and perforate exine that are derived in the subfamily
• The basic chromosome number is polyploid
• Pillansia may be an ancient relict polyploid surviving in locally equable sites in the southwestern Cape
• Chloroplast DNA sequence analysis, however, shows the genus to be allied to Thereianthus and Micranthus and neither primitive nor taxonomically isolated

Nomenclature:

• Pillansia L.Bolus
  • Bolus: 20 (1915)
  • Obermeyer: t. 1381 (1962)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 1, restricted to the Caledon District (Western Cape); coastal to ± 700 m, in seeps or areas of poor drainage

Additional Notes:

• Little is known about its biology but its pattern of mass blooming after fire and rarely at other times, is typical of many geophytes of nutrient-poor, sandstone soils
• The species appears to be pollinated by bees (Apidae, Halictidae) and monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae)