Notes

This variety has the largest flowers of the species, with very attenuate, acute sepals exceeding the corolla, and the most robust plants with tall thick stems, large, broad leaves and broad, very condensed verticillasters. It is very frequent in the eastern province of Zimbabwe, mainly in Inyanga District and Umtali (Mt. Nuza). No plants of forma rhodesica have been collected in gatherings mixed with var. longisepala. However, some specimens (e.g. Vereker 15553 from Enterprise and Müller 791 from Belingwe) have shorter calices and are transitional with typical C. nodulosa.From its description, C. mariae agrees with var. longisepala. The “types” in the Barbey-Boissier Herbarium (G) do not include Junod’s original plant, collected in (fide R.-Hamet, loc. cit.) in Mozambique, but two specimens cultivated in the gardens of “La Pierriere” at Chambery and belonging to two different species. One of them seems to be near to C. setulosa, the other to C. nodulosa; but the poor axillary cymes, possibly modified by culture, with flowers in a very young state, do not permit sure identification.