Description :

• Deciduous perennials
• Rootstock a globose corm rooting from below, basal in origin, tunics membranous to lightly fibrous
• Stem aerial, simple or branched, compressed and angled
• Leaves several, lower 2 or 3 cataphylls; foliage leaves unifacial, with a definite midrib, mostly basal and forming a lax distichous fan, blades sword-shaped, plane, fairly softly textured
• Inflorescence a spike, flowers loosely secund; bracts green, soft-textured, often becoming dry apically, inner usually shorter than outer, notched apically
• Flowers zygomorphic, hypocrateriform, shades of pink to purple, lower tepals with darker median streaks, unscented, with nectar from septal nectaries; perianth tube cylindric, elongate
• Tepals subequal, dorsal slightly larger and erect
• Stamens unilateral and arcuate; filaments arising shortly below mouth of tube, exserted from tube; anthers parallel; pollen monosulcate, operculate, exine perforate
• Style filiform, branches slender, undivided
• Capsules globose, cartilaginous
• Seeds globose, flattened at chalazal end, usually 2-4 per locule, rugulose, matte, surface colliculate
• x = 15

Nomenclature:

• Radinosiphon N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 263 (1932)
  • Carter: t. 1384 (1962)
  • Goldblatt: 65 (1993)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species either a single polymorphic entity or possibly 2 or 3 cryptic species, frequent in mountain areas, extending from Mpumulanga and Swaziland through E Zimbabwe to S Tanzania in rocky sites in montane grassland
• Southern Africa : Mpumulanga and Swaziland

Additional Notes:

• The long-tubed pink flowers are pollinated by the long-proboscid fly Prosoeca ganglbaueri (Nemestrinidae)