South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Flora of Southern Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Names
Kniphofia albescens [family ALOACEAE]
Information
Plants usually several- to many-stemmed. Leaves 0.6-1.0 m long, 8-15 mm broad, keeled, dull green to glaucous, tough and fibrous in texÂture; margin and keel smooth or sometimes disÂtantly and minutely scabrid. Scape overtopping recurved leaves, 400-750 mm tall. Raceme long-ovoid or subcylindrical, tapering to base and apex, dense, 60-100 x 27-35 mm, elongating up to 300 mm in fruit; buds greenish white or tinged with pink, erect; flowers becoming white or cream-coloured, spreading at anthesis, later pendulous. Bracts lanceolate to linear-lanceoÂlate, acuminate, 7-9 mm long, erect in bud stage; margin smooth to minutely denticulate. Pedicels 1 mm long. Perianth cylindrical, 11-15 mm long; lobes ovate, 2 mm long, slightly spreading. Stamens exserted by 2.0-2.5 mm at anthesis, eventually exserted by 5-6 mm. Fruit ovoid-triquetrous, 7-8 mm long. Flowering time: mid-January to early March. Figure 8.
Habitat
For differences between this species and the related K. breviflora, see notes after the latter species (No. 8). In perianth length, K. albescens approaches K. fibrosa (No. 12) and K. crassifo-lia (No. 13), but these two species are much less robust, with narrow grass-like leaves and serruÂlate margins.
Use
9. Kniphofia albescens Codd in The Flowering Plants of Africa 34: t. 1325 (1960a); Codd: 417 (1968); Relief & P.P.J.Herman: 101 (1997). Type: Natal [KwaZulu-Natal], mounÂtains north of Utrecht, Codd 3243 (PRE, holo.!).
Range
Distributed mainly from the Utrecht District in KwaZulu-Natal to the Piet Retief and Ermelo Districts in Mpumalanga with one record from Mount aux Sources. It occurs in dense grassland on mountain slopes, and on flats and in marshy places, at altitudes of 1 500 to 2 000 m. Map 5.
