Compilation
Stapelia humilis
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Name
Identification
Stapelia humilis Masson [family APOCYNACEAE ]
Related name
- Stapelia humilis
Flora
Entry for HUERNIA humilis Haw. [family ASCLEPIADACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Capensis
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Capensis, Vol 4, page 518, (1909) Author: By N. E. BROWN.
Names
HUERNIA humilis Haw. [family ASCLEPIADACEAE], Syn. Pl. Succ. 30;—Schultes, Syst. Veg. vi. 7; Loud. Hort. Brit. 97, and Encycl. Pl. 202; G. Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 113; Decne in DC. Prodr. viii. 651; N. E. Br. in Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 1905, fig. B; Schlechter in Journ. Bot. 1898, 485, partly.
Heurnia humilis K. Schum. [family ], in Engl. und Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iv. ii. 280.
Stapelia humilis Masson [family ASCLEPIADACEAE], Stap. 10, t. 5; Willd. Sp. Pl. i. 1294; Pers. Syn. Pl. i. 280; Poir. Encycl. Meth. vii. 390; Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, ii. 96.
Information
plant 2–2 1/2 in. high, compact; stems erect, 7–10 lin. thick, acutely 4–5-angled, glabrous, green, glaucous?; angles with acute spreading deltoid teeth 1–1 1/2 lin. long; flowers solitary according to Masson, but in Bain's specimen 4–5 or more are successively produced on a very short peduncle near the base of the young stems; pedicels 1/4– 1/3 in. long, glabrous; sepals 2 1/2–3 lin. long, lanceolate-subulate, glabrous; corolla in bud much flattened, pentagonal, very shortly abruptly and acutely pointed at the centre, with 5 small acute teeth at the angles and 5 very prominent ribs radiating from the point, glabrous, when expanded 1–1 1/4 in. in diam., with a very shallow saucer-shaped tube and a very abruptly spreading limb, lobed to more than half-way and raised into a broad convex ring around the mouth of the tube, glabrous; lobes deltoid in Masson's figure, deltoid-ovate and minutely papillate in Bain's specimen, very acute, pale yellow, dotted with blood-red; ring smooth, blackish-purple, marked with undulated whitish spots; outer corona small, with very short transverse bifid lobes or subequally 10-toothed; inner corona-lobes about 1/2 lin. long, ovate, acuminate, incumbent on the backs of the anthers and not produced beyond them. null
Distribution
CENTRAL REGION Beaufort West Div.; Nieuwveld Mountains, Bain, X!SOUTH AFRICA in dry regions, Masson.
Notes
The details of the flowers, except as to colour, are described from Bain's specimen, which agrees so well with Masson's figure in general characters that I believe it to be this species, the colour of its flowers, however, is unknown to me, as the specimen was received preserved in alcohol. H. humilis, Schlechter in Engl. Jahrb. xx. Beibl. 51, 54, is unknown to me, but it cannot be the same as H. humilis, Haw., the locality where it was collected (at the foot of the Houtboschberg Ranges, 5500 ft., in the Transvaal, Schlechter, 4761) is at least 600 miles distant from the home of the true H. humilis, and the colour of the flowers as described by Dr. Schlechter is totally different, varying between flesh-red and brownish, with large purple spots on the lobes and limb, the annulus varying between rose-red and dark purple-red.