- Moraea
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Moraea 
Moraea viscaria Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Monocots Order: Asparagales Family: Iridaceae Tribe: Irideae Genus: Moraea
Mill.Type species Moraea viscaria
(L.f.) Ker Gawl.Moraea is a genus of plants in the family Iridaceae. The genus name is a tribute to the English botanist Robert Moore.[1] The technical botanical material in this entry is abstracted largely from “The Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants”[2]
Contents
Description
Moraeas have iris-like flowers and were at first regarded as members of the genus Iris, but most of them are smaller than most irises and commonly they are more precise in shape and with a stiffer perianth and more definite markings. Some have strong, pleasant scents, while others have none to speak of. Plants of the genus now called Dietes once were considered to be in the genus Moraea, but were separated on the grounds that they were rhizomatous. In contrast, all Moraea species have corms.
Botanically, Moraea species are small to medium sized deciduous herbs. The rootstock is a globose corm covered with membranous or fibrous and reticulated tunics that may accumulate in multiple layers. The scape is subterranean or aerial, simple or branched, often bearing short leaf-like bracts at nodes. Leaves solitary or several, bifacial, flat to canaliculate or terete, with short equitant apex. Inflorescence a cymose corymb enclosed in large herbaceous spathes; floral bracts enclosed, membranous. Perianth Iris-like, radially symmetrical; tube absent except in one species; outer perianth-segments unguiculate, with limb spreading or reflexed; inner segments erect or spreading, entire, trifid, or reduced, or none. Stamens appressed to style column; filaments partly united, contiguous, rarely free; anthers linear, lying against style-branches. Ovary clavate to cylindrical; style usually short, 3-branched; branches, flattened, petaloid, each bearing forked crests; stigma a transverse lobe on abaxial surface at base of crests. Capsule globose to cylindrical, woody to soft-walled; seeds several to many, spherical to angled, or depressed and plate-like.
Diversity
There are about 200 known species of Moraea, divided into five groups, from various regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Most are endemic to Southern Africa, about 125 to the South-Western Cape in particular, with 2 species in Eurasia. They are typical fynbos geophytes and accordingly they vary greatly in their ecology, ranging from tiny plants just an inch or two high, to about four feet (120 cm), with a wide range of pollinators, including some long-tongued flies in families such as the Bombyliidae and Tabanidae. Some conserve their nectar and pollen for such pollinators by protecting their flowers from ants; they exude a sticky gum that covers the stalks of their inflorescences. Botanical names such as Moraea bituminosa and Moraea viscaria refer to this characteristic. The five groups are Galaxia, Hexaglottis, Homeria, Barnardiella and Gynandiris.
The corms of some species have been used as food, though they usually are small. Moraea fugax and Moraea edulis have been mentioned,the taste of the latter having been compared with that of chestnuts. However, some species are unpleasant and some actually poisonous.[3][4]
Some Moraea species: [5]
Selected species
Moraea flaccida
Moraea gawleri
Moraea macronyx
Moraea neglecta
Moraea ramosissima
Moraea tricuspidata
Moraea tricolor in Habitat
Moraea virgata- Moraea albiflora G. J. Lewis, Goldblatt
- Moraea algoensis Goldblatt
- Moraea amissa Goldblatt
- Moraea angulata Goldblatt
- Moraea angusta Thunberg, Ker Gawler
- Moraea anomala J. G. Lewis
- Moraea aristata (D. Delaroche) Ascherson & Graebner
- Moraea aspera Goldblatt
- Moraea autopunctata Goldblatt
- Moraea australis (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea autumnalis Goldblatt
- Moraea barkerae Goldblatt
- Moraea barnardiella Goldblatt
- Moraea barnardii L. Bolus
- Moraea bellendenii (Sweet) Brown
- Moraea bifida (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea bipartita L. Bolus
- Moraea bituminosa (L.f.) Ker Glawer
- Moraea brachygne (Schlechter) Goldblatt
- Moraea britteniae (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea bubalina Goldblatt
- Moraea bulbillifera (G. J. Lewis) Goldblatt
- Moraea cacea Barnard ex Goldblatt
- Moraea calcicola Goldblatt
- Moraea cantharophila Goldblatt & C.J. Manning
- Moraea cedarmontna (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea cedermonticola Goldblatt
- Moraea ciliata (L.f.) Ker Gawler
- Moraea citrina (G. J. Lewis) Goldblatt
- Moraea collina Thunberg
- Moraea comptonii (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea contorta Goldblatt
- Moraea cookii (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea cooperi Baker
- Moraea crispa Thunberg
- Moraea debilis Goldblatt
- Moraea autumnalis Goldblatt
- Moraea deltoidea Goldblatt & C. J. Manning
- Moraea demissa Goldblatt
- Moraea elegans Jacquin
- Moraea elliotii Baker
- Moraea elsiae Goldblatt
- Moraea exiliflora Goldblatt
- Moraea falcifolia Klatt
- Moraea fenestrata (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea fergusoniae L. Bolus
- Moraea fistulosa (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea flaccida Sweet
- Moraea flaviscens (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea fragrans Goldblatt
- Moraea fistulosa (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea fugacissima (L.f.) Goldblatt
- Moraea fugax (D.Delaroche) Jacquin
- Moraea fuscomontana (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea galaxia (L.f.) Goldblatt & Manning
- Moraea gawleri Sprengel
- Moraea gigandra L.Bolus
- Moraea gracilenta Goldblatt
- Moraea hesperantha (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea graniticola Goldblatt
- Moraea hexaglottis Goldblatt
- Moraea inconspicua Goldblatt
- Moraea lewisae (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea lilacina Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea linderi Goldblatt
- Moraea longiaristata Goldblatt
- Moraea longifolia (Jacquin) Persoon
- Moraea longistyla (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea loubseri Goldblatt
- Moraea louisabolusiae Goldblatt
- Moraea lugubris (Salsbury) Goldblatt
- Moraea lurida Ler Gawler
- Moraea luteoalba (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea macgregorii Goldblatt
- Moraea macrocarpa Goldblatt
- Moraea macronyx G. J. Lewis
- Moraea marlothii (L Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea maximiliani (Schlechter) Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea melanops Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea miniata Andrews
- Moraea minima Goldblatt
- Moraea minor Ecklon
- Moraea monticola Goldblatt
- Moraea nana (L. Bolus) Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea neglecta G. J. Lewis
- Moraea nibigena Goldblatt
- Moraea ochroleuca (Salsbury) Drapiez
- Moraea papilionacea (L.f.) Ker Gawler
- Moraea patens (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea pilifolia Goldblatt
- Moraea polyanthos L.f.
- Moraea polystacha (Thunberg) Ker Gawler
- Moraea pritzeliana Diels
- Moraea pseudospicata Goldblatt
- Moraea pyrophila Goldblatt
- Moraea radians (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea ramosissima (L.f.) Druce
- Moraea reflexa Goldblatt
- Moraea regalis Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea riparia (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea serpentina Baker
- Moraea setifolia (L.f.) Druce
- Moraea spathula (L.f.) Klatt
- Moraea speciosa (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea stagnalis (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea sisyrinchium (L.) Ker Gawler (Europe)
- Moraea thomasiae Goldblatt
- Moraea tricolor Andrews
- Moraea tricuspidata (L.f.) G. J. Lewis
- Moraea tripetala (L.f.) Ker Gawler
- Moraea tulbaghensis L. Bolus
- Moraea umbellata ThunbergFile:
- Moraea unguiculata Ker Gawler
- Moraea vallisavium Goldblatt
- Moraea vallisbelli (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea variabilis (G. J. Lewis) Goldblatt
- Moraea vegeta (L.)
- Moraea verecunda Goldblatt
- Moraea versicolor (Salsbury ex Klatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea vespertina Goldblatt & C. J. Manning
- Moraea villosa
- Moraea viscaria (L.f.) Ker
- Moraea virgita Jacquin
- Moraea worcesterensis Goldblatt
References
- ^ Manning, John; Goldblatt, Peter (2008). The Iris Family: Natural History & Classification. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. pp. 91–93. ISBN 0-88192-897-6.
- ^ Dyer, R. Allen, “The Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants”. ISBN 0 621 02854 1, 1975
- ^ Hallowes, Desmond; Fox, Francis William; Young, Marion Memma Norwood (1982). Food from the veld: edible wild plants of southern Africa botanically identified and described. New York: Delta Books. ISBN 0-908387-20-2.
- ^ Watt, John Mitchell, Breyer-Brandwijk, Maria Gerdina: The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa 2nd ed Pub. E & S Livingstone 1962
- ^ Manning, Goldblatt & Snijman. The Color Encyclopedia of Cape Bulbs. ISBN 0-88192-547-0.
External links
Media related to Moraea at Wikimedia Commons
Categories:- Moraea
- Iridaceae genera
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