Description:

• Perennial, small, deciduous, bulbous herbs
• Bulb subglobose, ovoid-ellipsoid or flattened at base and apex; outer covering of thin, membranous, brown tunics, inner scales fleshy, cataphyll tubular and membranous
• Leaves 2, contemporary with flowers; often flat on ground or spreading; usually broadly obovate, ovate or orbicular; folded at base; veins conspicuously sunken; glabrous or hairy, pustulate or echinulate; sometimes maculate
• Inflorescence a condensed subcorymb or subcapitate raceme of few to many flowers, close to ground level; peduncle short, tapered; outer bracts large and sterile, inner bracts much smaller and fertile
• Flowers usually white or pink, occasionally greenish, occasionally with conspicuous orange filaments; regular; often fragrant; pedicels short
• Tepals fused below, forming a tube, usually long and narrow; lobes linear, erect or spreading to reflexed, sometimes with a double fold at base; withering but persistent
• Stamens 6, in one whorl, prominent, arising from mouth of perianth tube; filaments free or fused, forming a basal cup or swollen disk; anthers oblong to linear, versatile
• Ovary globose to obtriangular; ovules few to many; style tapering; stigma small, apical
• Fruit an obtriangular capsule, winged or deeply lobed, thin-walled; dehiscing loculicidally
• Seeds globose, black, reticulate or verrucose

Classification Notes:

• This concept of Massonia includes 5 species detailed by Reid: ### (1993)~(Page number missing. No access to the publication) plus three species previously included under Neobakeria (following Müller-Doblies & Müller-Doblies, 1997)
  • It is different to Goldblatt & Manning: 104 (2000) who have taken a broad view of Massonia and included Neobakeria, Androsiphon, Amphisiphon and Daubenya
  • It does not include the 4 reinstated species and 1 new species described by Müller-Doblies & Müller-Doblies (1997)
    • The latter also described a closely related, monospecific genus, Namophila D.Müll.-Doblies & U.Müll.-Doblies, endemic to Namibia

Nomenclature:

• Massonia Thunb. ex Houtt.
  • Houttuyn: 424, t. 85 (1780)
  • Baker: 408 (1897)
  • Merrill: 331 (1938)
  • Obermeyer: t. 1451 (1965)
  • Merxmüller & Roessler: 83 (1973)
  • Jessop: 406 (1976)
  • Hilliard: 35 (1990)
  • Müller-Doblies & Müller-Doblies: 66 (1997)
  • Goldblatt & Manning: 104 (2000)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species ± 8, Namibia, North-West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape
  • Massonia is widespread in dry areas, often on clay or sandy flats or rocky slopes