Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

264 HYPOXIDACEAE
- Robust plants, leaf width 1.5–2.5 cm, tepal length 10–15 mm 6
4. Leaf width 0.5–2 cm, inflorescence with 2–5 flowers 5
- Leaf width 0.3–0.5 cm, 1–2 flowers, rarely more, only known from the
Negelle area 5. H. neghellensis
5. Leaves more or less prostrate, up to 1 cm wide 3. H. abyssinica
- Leaves more or less erect, 1–2 cm wide 4. H. boranensis
6. Inflorescence with 2–6 flowers 6. H. tristycha
- Inflorescence with more than 8 flowers 7. H. fischeri
Hypoxis angustifolia
Description
Habitat and
distribution
1. Hypoxis angustifolia Lamarck
The species epithet ‘angustifolia’ refers to the narrow
leaves (angustus = narrow, folium = leaf). It was described
by the famous French naturalist, Jean Baptist La marck,
based on material from Mauritius, as early as in 1789. It
can be recognised by the long, slender grasslike leaves,
the relatively small flowers on rather long pedicels, the
fruits opening by longitudinal slits, and by the cuticular
folding on the seed coat. The last trait is shared by H.
schim peri, but the two species can easily be distinguished
on the differing pedicel length (longer than 1 cm in H.
angustifolia), tepal length (shorter than 8 mm), and
capsule dehiscence (longitudinal slits).
Grasslike plants from a corm 1–2.5 × 0.8–2 cm, whitish or yellowish
inside. Leaves erect or lax, linear (10–) 25–35 × 0.2–0.7 cm, except
for very early in the growing season always by far overtopping the
flowers, covered by long whitish to yellowish hairs. Peduncle 3–12
cm long. Inflorescence corymbose with (1–) 3–5 flowers; pedicels
longer than 1 cm. Tepals.5–8 mm, anthers with an apical split.
Capsule turbinate, distinctly longer than broad when ripe, thinwalled
so that the seed contours are visible, loculicidal opening.
Seeds with a special cuticular folding on the seed coat papilla,
making them dull brownish.
The species belongs in open woodland and bushland,
but is most frequently found in treeless and seasonally
swamped grassland, often heavily grazed, on blackish to
reddish more or less heavy clayish soils between 1275
and 2800 m. It is recorded from Gonder, Shewa, Bale,
Sidamo, Kefa, and Wellega floristic regions. It is also
widespread in Tropical Africa reaching Mauritius in the