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Watsonia meriana

(Bulbil Bugle-Lily)

Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

Bugle Lily, Bulbil Bugle-Lily, Bulbil Watsonia, Wild Watsonia

Common Names in Portuguese:

Palminha, Palminha-Rosa

Description

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Family Iridaceae

Herbs perennial (or shrubs or annuals ), with rhizomes, bulbs, or corms. Leaves alternate, often 2-ranked, often oriented edgewise to aerial stem, usually sword-shaped to linear , parallel veined, base sheathing . Inflorescence sometimes a spike or reduced to a solitary flower, more often of monochasial , umbellate cymes, each enclosed in 2 opposed bracts (spathes ) and termed a rhipidium, which may be solitary and terminal or numerous and variously arranged in racemes or panicles; bracts 1 to several. Flowers bisexual , showy, usually actinomorphic (often zygomorphic elsewhere) . Perianth segments 6, in 2 whorls, inner and outer ones equal or differing in size and/or color; tube filiform or trumpet-shaped. Stamens (2 or) 3; anthers extrorse . Ovary inferior (or superior), 3-loculed; ovules few to many; placentation axile . Style with filiform, slender, or petaloid branches. Fruit a loculicidal capsule. Seeds with or without aril and wings.

Between 70 and 80 genera and ca. 1800 species: nearly worldwide, especially S Africa, Asia, and Europe; three genera and 61 species (21 endemic, one introduced ) in China.[1]

Genus Watsonia

Herbs, perennial , from corms. Stems simple or branched. Leaves several; blade plane , lanceolate to linear , usually coarse , fibrotic. Inflorescences spicate , erect , many-flowered; bracts green, often flushed with red, unequal, usually outer exceeding inner, apex acute, inner forked apically, firm to leathery. Flowers short-lived, odorless [rarely fragrant], zygomorphic [actinomorphic ], distichous; tepals horizontal or suberect, connate into tube , orange, red, or purple [pink, rarely white], ± equal [equal]; perianth tube funnel-shaped or elongate , expanded distally into wide, horizontal upper part; stamens unilateral [symmetrical ], arcuate [declinate ], extended horizontally below dorsal tepal; anthers parallel [diverging]; style arching below or above filaments [central], dividing opposite to [beyond] anthers into 3 filiform branches each divided for ca. 1/2 their length , apically stigmatic. Capsules [globose to] oblong , wood-textured, rounded [acute or attenuate]. Seeds several to many, angular, 1- or 2-winged [prismatic ]; seed coat light brown. x = 9.

Species 52: introduced ; s Africa.

Several species of Watsonia are cultivated in the flora area where the winters are mild, especially in California; only W. meriana is truly naturalized . The following have been recorded as persisting for some years around abandoned dwellings, in cemeteries and garbage dumps, and along roads and highways: W. borbonica (Pourret) Goldblatt (both pink- and white-flowered forms), W. fourcadei J. W. Mathews & L. Bolus, and W. marginata (Linnaeus f.) Ker Gawler.[2]

Physical Description

Species Watsonia meriana

Plants sometimes growing in dense clumps , 50-200 cm. Corms tunicate , depressed-globose, 30-45 mm diam.; tunic fibrous , fibers coarse , reticulate . Stems simple or 1-2-branched, often with large cormlets in proximal axils, occasionally also in distal axils of stem, spike. Leaves 4-6, basal leaves 3-4, blade lanceolate, 12-35 mm wide; cauline leaves smaller than basal, blade with margins and midribs hyaline , heavily thickened. Spikes 8-12(-25) -flowered; spathes often flushed with red, outer 18-30 mm, dry in distal 3-5 mm, inner slightly longer to slightly shorter than outer. Tepals orange, red, or purple, lanceolate, outer slightly narrower than inner, 22-27 × 8-15 mm; perianth tube proximally slender, 18-25 mm wide, abruptly expanded distally, 20-25 mm wide; filaments 35-45 mm; anthers 8-12 mm; ovary oblong , 3-4 mm; style branching opposite middle of anthers; branches 6-7 mm. Capsules 22-30 mm. Seeds prominently winged distally, weakly or not winged proximally, 10-18 mm. [source]

Most Watsonia plants recorded from North America correspond to the triploid, sexually sterile form of W. meriana, also known as W. bulbillifera, which reproduces by means of cormlets produced at the aerial nodes. Most of the flowers do not produce capsules, but a few, containing viable seeds, are occasionally formed. Chromosome number in the Californian plants has not been determined. [source]

Habit: Deciduous.

Flowers: Bloom Period: May, June, July. • Flower Color: dark red, scarlet

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 36-48" tall.

Habitat

Roadsides and grassy banks[3].

Biology

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Growth

Culture: Space 24-36" apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b. (map)

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Gladiolus merianus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 10, 2: 863. 1759
  2. Watsonia angusta auct. non Ker-Gawl.
  3. Watsonia bulbillifera J. W. Mathews & L. Bolus
  4. Watsonia bulbillifera Matthews & L. Bolus

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Gard. dict. ed. 8: Watsonia no. 1. 1768

Name verified on 09-Jun-1998 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 26-Jul-2004

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Watsonia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 159 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

W. albertiniensis · W. aletroides (Watsonia) · W. alpina · W. amabilis · W. amatolae · W. angusta · W. archbelliae · W. ardernei · W. bachmannii · W. barbonica ardenei white-flowered · W. baurii · W. beatricis · W. bella · W. 'Best Red' · W. borbonica (Cape Bugle Lily) · W. borbonica 'Ablaze' · W. borbonica ardernei · W. borbonica ardernei 'Arderne's White' (Arderne's White Watsonia) · W. borbonica borbonica · W. borbonica 'Cherry Splash' · W. borbonica 'Early Dawn' · W. borbonica 'Flamboyant' · W. borbonica 'Snow Bell' · W. borbonica 'Snow Queen' · W. borbonica subsp. ardernei · W. brevifolia · W. bulbillifera · W. caledonica · W. canaliculata · W. 'Carlsbad' · W. coccinea (Scarlet Bugle Lily) · W. coccinea dwarf · W. comptonii · W. confusa · W. cooperi · W. densiflora (Bugle Lily) · W. desmidtii · W. distans · W. doelii · W. doelii var. minor · W. dubia · W. ecklonii · W. elimensis · W. elsiae · W. emiliae · W. falcaria var. andina · W. fergusoniae · W. 'Flame' · W. flavida · W. fourcadei (Watsonia) · W. fulgens (Watsonia) · W. fulgida · W. galpinii (Bugle Lily) · W. galpinii pink-flowered · W. gladioloides · W. humilis (Pink Bugle Lily) · W. hyacinthoides · W. hybrid · W. hysterantha (Watsonia) · W. 'Ida Edwards' · W. inclinata · W. 'Indian Orange' · W. intermedia (Bugle Lily) · W. iridifolia · W. 'Ivory Towers' (Bugle Flower) · W. 'Jessie' · W. juncifolia · W. knysnana · W. laccata (Watsonia) · W. lamarkii · W. lapeyrousioides · W. latifolia · W. leipoldtii · W. 'Leng' · W. lepida · W. 'Lilac Towers' (Bugle Flower) · W. longicollis · W. longifolia · W. marginata (Fragrant Bugle-Lily) · W. marginata alba · W. marginata 'Star Spike' · W. marlothii · W. masoniae · W. meriana (Bulbil Bugle-Lily) · W. meriana var. bulbillifera · W. meriania · W. meriania var. bulbillifera · W. middlemostii · W. minima · W. minuta · W. montana · W. 'Mount Congreve' · W. mtamvunae · W. muirii · W. natalensis · W. neglecta · W. obrienii · W. occulta · W. palustris · W. pauciflora

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 28, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Yu-tang Zhao, Henry J. Noltie & Brian F. Mathew "Iridaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 297. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Peter Goldblatt "Watsonia". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 349, 401, 402. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. "Watsonia meriana". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 399, 402. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/2/2009