Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

188 HYACINTHACEAE
Dipcadi marlothii
Description
Habitat and
distribution
herbarium specimens, it has been difficult to find any
discontinuity in single characters and correlation in
variation among characters, the species have thus been
‘lumped’ to a single species.
The adaptive role of tepal appendages is not known.
One might guess that it is related to features of the
pollinator. The plants excrete nectar, as all Hyacinthaceae,
and might attract insects by smell; as to visual attraction
they are not very impressive, at least not with human
eyes.
2. Dipcadi marlothii Engler
The species epithet is honouring Mr. Mar loth, who
collected the first plants representing this species in
Botswana. It was described by Engler in 1889.The
species is easily distinguished from D. viride by its hairy
leaves and tepals without appendages.
Small plants about 15 cm tall. Bulb c. 1.5 cm in diameter. Leaves
filiform, pubescent. Raceme few-flowered. Bracts c. 6 mm, pedicels
c. 3 mm. Tepals up to 15 mm, the outer ones lacking the caudate
appendages otherwise common in the genus. Capsules and seeds
not known.
This species grows in bushland on red soils around 830
m, only collected once in the Harerge floristic region.
It has an extremely disjunct distribution in Kenya,
Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. On a
regional scale, more analyses are necessary to find out
whether the Southern African plants really represent the
same species as the Ethiopian (and Kenyan?) ones. The
flowering period in Ethiopia is in November.
3. DRIMIOPSIS Lindl. & Paxt.
This genus includes plants that often have spotted leaves
that are narrowly to broadly lanceolate. The inflorescence
is (sub)­spicate and different from all other genera in the
family in that the flowers are not supported by bracts. The
flowers are globular to shortly cylindrical, and the three
inner do not open, except for a small apical hole where
insects with a strong proboscis may gain access to the