Bulb 10-60 mm in diameter; outer tunics thinly fibrous to thick and felt-like, rarely brittle, producing extensible threads when torn
Leaves 2(-4), present after flowering, distichous, filiform to lorate, glabrous or rarely minutely pilose
Inflorescence 4-65-flowered, in a ± hemispherical head, 25-120 mm in diameter; scape slender, solid, 20-220 mm long, abscissing at ground level in fruit; spathe valves 2, narrowly lanceolate, membranous
Flowers regular, usually stellate, rarely hypocrateriform or funnel-shaped, pink or rarely white to lemon-yellow, unmarked or with a dark centre; pedicels radiating, distinctly longer than perigone
Tepals free or proximally connate into a short or occasionally long tube, plane or crisped
Stamens spreading, often shortly confluent with tepals at base, rarely in 2 unequal series; filaments proximally connate into a very short or long tube, sometimes bearing inwardly curved hooks; anthers centrifixed to subcentrifixed; pollen bisulculate with spinulose exine
Ovary subglobose; ovules up to 4 per locule, unitegmic; style slender, erect, exserted or rarely included in perigone tube; stigma trifid
Capsule small, loculicidal, papery, subglobose
Seeds fleshy, ovoid, ± 4 mm in diameter, reddish green; testa stomatose; integument and embryo green
x = 10 (aneuploids)
Nomenclature:
Hessea Herb.
Herbert: 289 t. 29 (1837) name conserved, not of P.J.Bergius ex Schltdl.: 252 (1826)
Bentham & Hooker: 720 (1883) in part
Baker: 189 (1896) in part
Sölch & Roessler: 11 (1969)
Müller-Doblies: 37 (1985)
Snijman: 44 (1994)
Periphanes Salisb.
Salisbury: 118 (1866)
Leighton: 81 (1948)
Namaquanula D. & U.Müll.-Doblies
Müller-Doblies: 20 (1985)
Kamiesbergia Snijman
Snijman: 125 (1991)
Dewinterella D. & U.Müll.-Doblies
Müller-Doblies: 341 (1994)
Distribution & Notes:
Southern Africa: Species 14, endemic to the winter-rainfall region, Namibia, Northern and Western Cape
References:
BAKER, J.G. 1896. Amaryllideae. Flora capensis 6
BENTHAM, G. & HOOKER, J.D. 1883. Genera plantarum, Vol. 3. Reeve, London
HERBERT, W. 1837. Amaryllidaceae. James Ridgway & Sons, London
LEIGHTON, F.M. 1948. Some changes in nomenclature 5. Journal of South African Botany 14
MÜLLER-DOBLIES, D. & U. 1985. De Liliifloris notulae 2. De taxonomia subtribus Strumariinae (Amaryllidaceae). Botanische Jahrbücher 107
MÜLLER-DOBLIES, D. & U. 1994. De Liliifloris notulae 5. Some new taxa and combinations in the Amaryllidaceae tribe Amaryllideae from arid southern Africa. Feddes Repertorium 105
SALISBURY, R.A. 1866. The genera of plants. John van Voorst, London
SCHLECHTENDAL, D.F.L. 1826. Plantarum capensium descriptiones. Linnaea 1
SNIJMAN, D.A. 1991. Kamiesbergia, a new monotypic genus of the Amaryllideae-Strmariinae (Amaryllidaceae) from the north-western Cape. Bothalia 21
SNIJMAN, D.A. 1994. Systematics of Hessea, Strumaria and Carpolyza (Amaryllideae: Amaryllidaceae). Contributions from the Bolus Herbarium, Vol. 16
SÖLCH, A. & ROESSLER, H. 1969. Amaryllidaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 150
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