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Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

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280 DRACAENACEAE<br />

Subspecies key<br />

Dracaena ombet<br />

subsp. ombet<br />

Habitat <strong>and</strong><br />

distribution<br />

Dracaena ombet<br />

subsp. schizantha<br />

Description<br />

Habitat <strong>and</strong><br />

distribution<br />

in the middle. Perianth white, 6 mm long including the 0.5 mm<br />

long tube. Ovary oblong; stigma shallowly 3­1obed. Fruits orange,<br />

globose, usually 1­seeded, 1 cm in diameter. Seed globose, 6 mm<br />

in diameter.<br />

1. Leaf margin smooth; end branches <strong>of</strong> the inflorescence glabrous. a.<br />

subsp. ombet<br />

- Leaf margin scabrid; end branches <strong>of</strong> the inflorescence pubescent.<br />

b. subsp. schizantha<br />

a. subsp. ombet<br />

Tree up to 4 m tall. Leaves without a keel, crescent­shaped<br />

in cross section; margins smooth; basal part only twice as<br />

wide as long. Inflorescence glabrous throughout.<br />

This subspecies differs from subsp. schizantha by the<br />

glabrous inflorescence.<br />

The subspecies grows in open Olea europaea forest<br />

on limestone, <strong>and</strong> in semi­desert grassl<strong>and</strong> whith<br />

scattered Acacia scrub, in Tigray <strong>and</strong> Afar floristic<br />

regions in <strong>Ethiopia</strong>, <strong>and</strong> along the Red Sea coast <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>Eritrea</strong>, between 800 <strong>and</strong> 2100 m. It also occurs in<br />

Egypt <strong>and</strong> the Sudan. Fruiting specimens have been<br />

collected in October.<br />

b. subsp. schizantha (Baker) Bos<br />

The subspecific epithet ‘schizantha’ refers to the deeply<br />

divided (schiz-) flowers (-anthus). The subspecies was<br />

descri bed as Dra cae na schizantha by Baker in 1877 from<br />

a plant collected from the Ahl <strong>and</strong> Serut mountains in<br />

Somalia by Hil de br<strong>and</strong>t. The species was later reduced<br />

to subspecies by Bos in 1997.<br />

It differs from the related subspecies, subsp. ombet<br />

by having pubescent inflorescences (mainly towards the<br />

tip).<br />

Tree up to 8m tall, old bark becoming very smooth, gray. Leaves<br />

generally narrow with a keel <strong>and</strong> rather triangular in cross section,<br />

margin distinctly scabrid, blade widened abruptly to a clasping base,<br />

3–4 times as wide as long. Inflorescence with smaller branches<br />

minutely pubescent.<br />

The subspecies grows in mountain slopes, in Acacia-<br />

Commiphora bushl<strong>and</strong> on limestone, <strong>and</strong> also in evergreen<br />

bushl<strong>and</strong> do mi nated by Buxus <strong>and</strong> Acokanthera between<br />

1000 <strong>and</strong> 1800 m in Sidamo, Bale, <strong>and</strong> Harerge floristic<br />

regions. It also occurs in Somalia, <strong>and</strong> possibly in Yemen.<br />

The main flowering period is from February to May.

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