Notes on the genus Ficinia : F . pygmaea , F limosa . F clcindestina and nine new taxa from the south-western Cape . South Africa

Nine new taxa are described and a new combination is made in the genus Ficinia (Cyperaceae). An examina­ tion of F. pygmaea Boeck. and F. limosa Levyns leads to the conclusion that these two species are conspecific. F. clandestina (Steud.) Boeck., endemic to Ethiopia, is considered not to belong to Ficinia. Its true identity is unknown. «

Due to poorly defined limits several species and species groups within Ficinia have become "dumping grounds" for specimens which could not readily be placed with other established taxa.The largest and perhaps most problematic of these groups is the F. indica (Lam.)Pfeiff.//\pallens (Schrad.)Nees complex which forms the major part of the section Bracteosae.All who have studied this complex have treated it differently.At one extreme (Schonland, 1922) the entities comprising it have been regarded as mere varieties, while at the other extreme (Levyns, 1950) five distinct species have been recognized within it.The work carried out so far is not entirely satisfactory and has tended to confound the existing confusion rather than to clarify it.
A study of the F. indica/F.pallens complex together with the remaining taxa comprising the section Bracteosae of Ficinia has made it possible to recognize several new taxa, none of which appears to have been previously described.
Perennial, erect, up to 0,6 m high, tufted, robust.Rhizome contracted or up to 20 mm long, ± 5 mm wide, concealed by persistent, ferruginous, fibrous leaf bases, or enclosed in dark reddish brown striate scales, ± 5 mm long.Stolons wanting.Leaf sheaths membranous, pale, flecked with brown, tearing with age.Ligule short, up to 3 mm long, apex oblique.
In general facies plants resemble a compact form of F. pallens, thus many specimens have been named F. lithosperma var.compact a in the past.The species also closely resembles F. levynsiae, and is very similar vegetatively, but differs in the inflorescence form.
Plants of F. cedarbergensis may be recognized by the coarse, irregularly branching rhizome, the mem branous leaf sheaths that are flecked with brown, the broad (especially at the base) pale coloured midrib of the inflorescence bracts, the thick red style with its granular branches and the inflorescence axis which is similar only to that of F. levynsiae.
This species is named in honour of the late Dr (Mrs) M. R. Levyns who has contributed materially to the knowledge of South African Cyperaceae, including Ficinia.
For a long time plants of this species were misidentified as F. lithosperma var.compacta [considered by the present authors to be a form of F. indica (Lam.)PfeifF.]. C. B. Clarke (1898) described the inflorescence of F. lithosperma var.compacta as a "head i in (7 mm) broad, very tightly packed, chestnut coloured (as are the shiny bracts)" .He also stated that the leaf sheaths were not conspicuous.In F. levynsiae (Fig. 1) the inflorescence is also tightly compacted, but much more so than in F. lithosperma var.compacta', It is 5-10 mm broad and has shiny dark brown bracts.The leaf sheaths, however, are highly conspicuous, being scarious and white flecked with brown.Despite the superficial resemblance between these taxa, which is over-emphasized when described in words, these two taxa are not closely allied to one another.F. levynsiae is most closely allied to F. cedarbergensis and F. petrophylla.It may be distinguished from these species by its conspicuous leaf sheaths with well developed ligules, its globose, dark brown inflo rescences, its inflorescence bracts which have scarious margins and obtuse apices, its thick, red, granular styles and style branches and the greyish-brown, longitudinally asymmetrical achene, which when mature, exceeds the glumes in length.
The species derives its name from the rocky terrain in which it commonly grows.It is very closely allied to F. levynsiae from which it may quite readily be dis tinguished by its broad flattened leaf blades, its golden inflorescence and its characteristic inflorescence axis which is elliptical and unbranched.
Restricted in distribution to the area between the Du Toitsberg mountain near Worcester and the Hottentot Hollands mountains near Caledon (Fig. 4).Plants grow in sandy soils on rocky mountain slopes between altitudes of 600-950 m.Flowering period July to October.
This species is named for its large, attractive inflo rescence.With the exception of F. radiata, it has probably the most striking inflorescence in Ficinia.
F. grandiflora appears morphologically intermediate between F. deusta and F. nigrescens.It may well have arisen as a result of interspecific hybridization between these species.The diagnostic features that distinguish it from these and other related species such as F. ixioides are the long, acuminate, fertile bracts which are not recurved at the apex, the 3-4 leaf-like sterile bracts and the markedly scarious leaf sheaths.It also has a more restricted distribution than any of its relatives.
F. gydomontana is most closely allied to F. nigrescens (Schrad.)J. Rayn.( = F .bract eat a Boeck.), which it resembles very closely.It can be easily distinguished from the latter species by its lack of leaf blades which if present are rarely up to 50 mm long and have incurved margins, the two lowermost inflorescence bracts which are aristate, the innermost fertile bracts which are scarcely recurved and the smooth surface of its achene.
T ype.-Cape, 3326 (Grahamstown): at turnoff to South Wells on road from Bushmans River mouth (-BC ), Arnold 602 (PRE, holo.; K).Perennial erect, up to 0,3 m hightufted,stoloniferous.Rhizome contracted, or up to 10 mm long, ± 5 mm wide, oblique, concealed by persistent, light brown, papery leaf bases.Stolons up to 150 mm long, ± 3 mm wide, clothed in light brown striate, lanceolate scales, ±15 mm long, ± 3 mm wide.Leaf sheaths membra nous, pale brown to dark red, with truncate to subo blique apices.Ligule wanting or up to 2 mm long.Leaf blades lax or erect and rigid, i to exceeding length of flowering stems, flattened and up to 3 mm broad or crescentiform with edges infolded, or subcylindric, margins variously scabrid.Inflorescence a terminal, compact head, ovate to globose, greenishyellow, tinged with red, up to 15 mm long, ±12 mm wide, lowest i enveloped by dilated bract bases.Bracts several, lowest 2 (occasionally 3) with leafy, blade-like tips up to 50 mm long, dilated bases with margins tapering gradually to meet leafy tips or with apices obtuse.Spikelets up to 6-flowered.Glumes ovate, ± 5 mm long, ± 2 mm wide, apices acute, mucronate.Anther crests linear, twice as long as broad at crest base, apex obtuse.Style exposed length of achene, branches long, slender, 3-10 times style length, finely papillate.Achene greyish-brown or mottled black and greyish-brown, £ glume length, obovate to elliptical, trigonous, surface conspicuously celled or not.Gynophore exposed lenght of achene, obconical, margin without conspicuous lobes or crenate.Inflorescence axis up to 10 mm long, major bract scars subtending branches 1-3 mm long.(F ig. 7.) Plants of this species are distributed along the coastal flats of the south-eastern Cape from Mossel Bay to East London: they also extend inland as far as Grahamstown (Fig. 8).Plants grow mainly in very sandy habitats, especially in grassveld immediately behind sand dunes, but are also found in damp depressions with dense, clay soils.Flowering period August to November.
The name arenicola has been chosen as this species frequently grows in sandy soils.Variation within the species is such that two infraspecific entities can be recognized which differ morphologically and in habitat preferences.Significant differences in culm and leaf blade anatomy were also observed.These two entities are recognized as varieties of a single species.Plants compactly tufted with 1-6 flowering stems per tuft.Rhizomes concealed by persistent pale brown papery leaf bases.Stolons up to 150 mm long, leaf sheaths with ligules wanting or minute, inconspicuous, ± 2 mm long.Leaf blades lax, droop ing, 3-4 mm broad, margins scabrid.Inflorescence obovate, usually greater than 10 mm in diameter.Style £ length of mature achene, branches 6-10 times style length.Achene mottled black and greyishbrown, obovate, trigonous, apex flattened to retuse.Gynophore \ length of exposed achene, margin twolobed.

Key to varieties
Plants are distributed between Port Elizabeth and East London.They grow in very sandy habitats especially in grassveld immediately behind sand dunes.
This variety is allied to F. pallens.In the past many specimens of it were cited in the literature as F. lithosperma, a synonym of F. pallens (Schrad.)Nees.Besides differing morphologically, these two taxa also have different geographical ranges.The charac ters which best distinguish F. arenicola var.arenicola from F. pallens are its stoloniferous habit (but F. pallens var.pallens is also stoloniferous), its long, lax leaf blades, with a distinct band of yellow tissue along the centre of the adaxial surface its two (rarely three) leafy bracts the lowest of which stands erect and nearly vertical, with the second almost horizontal and at right angles to the first, the style which has excep tionally long branches, and the achene which is generally black, mottled with greyish-brown.(b).var.erecta Arnold & Gordon-Gray, var.nov., var.arenicolae aflinis, sed foliorum laminis erectis, rigidis, subcylindricis, marginibus incurvis, vix scabris.
Plants are distributed from Mossel Bay to Grahams town.This variety prefers soils that are compact and clayey and therefore occurs commonly in depressions.Plants do, however, sometimes grow in ± sandy soils.
The name of this variety recognizes its tall erect rigid habit, particularly the stance of the leaf blades, as opposed to those of var.arenicola which are relati vely soft, lax and drooping.
It has a distinctly smaller inflorescence than var.arenicola and very closely resembles the inflorescence of the typical form of F. indica.It may be distinguished from this entity, however, by its loosely tufted habit, its leaves that are longer than the flowering stems, the ligule which is up to 3 mm long and the achene which is elliptical, greyish-brown and provided with conspicuous epidermal cells.
Flowering stems with 12-14 prominent ridges.Leaf blades lax, flattened, up to 2 mm broad, margins not infolded.Glumes with distal of abaxial surface and aristae scabrid.A n tlw crests twice as long as breadth at crest base, rounded, spinescent.Achene brown, apex obtuse, surface minutely muricate.Distributed from Cape Town and Worcester to Port Elizabeth.Flowering period August to December.