Geophyte with a deep-seated potato-like, large, edible tuber with fibrous roots, annually producing a taproot and a single, erect, rarely branched, ridged, usually prickly, leafy stem, up to ± 0.6 m tall
Leaves
sessile, alternate, linear to lanceolate, successively larger and more foliose upwards, often prickly, apex cirrhose or subulate
Flowers
axillary, solitary in each axil, pendulous; peduncle long, thin, erect, prickly, with a bract resembling a minute leaf; pedicel recurved
Perianth
with segments fused basally, spreading-reflexed, white, pink or light blue
Stamens
6; filaments short, confluent at base, arising from throat of perianth; anthers connivent, forming a cone
Ovary
largely superior, globose
Capsule
(? or berry) subglobose, 3-grooved
Seeds
rounded-oblong, dark brown, coarsely papillate, papillae bearing small tufts of hairs
x = 12
Nomenclature:
Walleria
J.Kirk
Kirk: 497, t. 52 (1864)
Baker: 528 (1897)
Hutchinson: 751 & 760 (1973) as
Liliaceae
and
Tecophilaeaceae
respectively
Carter: 185 (1962)
Sterling: 115 (1974)
Dahlgren & Van Wyk: 75 (1988) in
Wallerioideae
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 3, Africa and Madagascar
Southern Africa
: Species 2, 1 widespread but uncommon, 1 rare in Western Cape
References:
BAKER, J.G. 1897.
Liliaceae
.
Flora capensis
6
CARTER, S. 1962. Revision of
Walleria
and
Cyanastrum
(
Tecophilaeaceae
).
Kew Bulletin
16
DAHLGREN, R. & VAN WYK, A.E. 1988. Structures and relationships of families endemic to or centered in southern Africa.
Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden
25
HUTCHINSON, J. 1973.
The families of flowering plants
, edn 3. Clarendon, Oxford
KIRK, J. 1864. On a new genus of
Liliaceae
from East tropical Africa.
Transactions of the Linnean Society
24
STERLING, C. 1974. Comparative morphology of the carpel in the
Liliaceae
:
Baeometra
,
Burchardia
and
Walleria
.
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
68
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