Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Habitat and
distribution
Hesperantha
petitiana
DIERAMA HESPERANTHA 235
It grows in grassland and heath between 2000 and 3500 m
in Arsi and Bale floristic regions. It also occurs in Kenya,
Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi. The main flowering period
in Ethiopia is from October to December, sometimes also
from May to June.
5. HESPERANTHA Ker Gawl.
The genus is distinguished from other indigenous genera
by the radially symmetric perianth, by the style dividing
at the mouth of the perianth tube into long and spreading
branches, and by having the stigmatic surface spread
along the entire length of the style branches.
The genus includes perennial herbs with small corms
with woody to leathery tunics. The leaves are few to
several; the lower cataphylls 2–3, membranaceous
and entirely sheathing; the foliage leaves lanceolate to
linear (rarely terete). The blades are plane or sometimes
with raised margins and midrib. The stem is simple or
occasionally branched. The inflorescence is a spike. The
flowers are radially symmetric, usually white or pink and
frequently closed in the day and opening in the evening.
The tepals are united in a cylindrical or curved tube,
subequal, spread horizontally or cupped. The style is
usually dividing at the mouth of the tube, and the branches
are long and spreading with the stigmatic surfaces along
their entire length. The capsules are broadly ovoid to
cylindrical, sometimes dehiscing only in the upper third.
The genus contains c. 65 species in sub­Saharan
Africa, mainly in the Drakensberg and the Cape in South
Africa. Only 3 species are known in tropical Africa, and
of these only the following species occur in Ethiopia.
Hesperantha petitiana (A. Rich.) Baker
The specific epithet ‘petitiana’ was given in honour of
the French collector, Anto ine Petit from whose collection
the type of the species was designated. The species was
described by A. Richard in 1850 as Ixia petitiana from
a plant collected near Maigougua in Tigray floristic
region by Quartin­Dillon and Petit. The name was later
transferred to the genus Hesperantha by Baker in 1878.