Wurmbea mystery
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 11 Aug 2016 07:51:38 PDT)

I had an email conversation with John Manning when I was trying to
figure out some unidentified wurmbeas we had seen on a trip to South
Africa and I ended up getting very confused about Wurmbea spicata,
especially when he said that the photo in the Color Encyclopedia was
probably wrong and

So many photos I had seen identified as this species have blotches.
Onixotis has been included in Wurmbea, but the key in the Color
Encyclopedia for Wurmbea does not include it. Botanists can probably
help me out here, but the description of the nectary for the original
Wurmbea was a pouch like nectary at the base of the free part of the
tepal and for Onixotis "a more or less narrowly pouch-like nectary above
each of two conspicuous lobes curved upward above the claw".

If I understand this description and look at the photos on the Wiki, the
nectary is often further down the tepal than in the photos of the
mystery plant. Could this plant be Wurmbea punctata (formerly
Onixotis?). The location fits the description for where it is
distributed. If we could see the whole plant it would really help. This
species has white to maroon flowers that are sessile on a short spike
with three lanceolate leaves and the uppermost set about halfway up the
stem. Here's an Ispot link that was identified as likely to be that
species with one agreement:

http://ispotnature.org/node/662007/…

Mary Sue