Massonia visseriae (Asparagaceae, Scilloideae): rediscovery of a neglected species of Neobakeria and its transfer to Massonia

Abstract

Asparagaceae subfamily Scilloideae, tribe Hyacintheae is alternatively regarded as Hyacinthaceae subfam. Hyacinthoideae. Additional information on generic circumscriptions in Hyacinthoideae can be found in Martínez-Azorín et al. (2013, 2014a, 2014b), Pinter et al. (2013) and Wetschnig et al. (2014). The genus Massonia Houttuyn (1780: 424) belongs to tribe Massonieae of Hyacinthoideae (Speta 1998a, 1998b, Wetschnig et al. 2002, Pfosser et al. 2003, Manning et al. 2004) confined to South Africa and southwestern Namibia. Our studies in Massonia reveal that the taxonomy of the genus, as presented in recent revisions, is not satisfactory and several species concepts have been either overlooked or misunderstood (Wetschnig et al. 2012, 2014, Martínez-Azorín et al. 2013, 2014a, 2014b, 2015a, 2015b, 2017, Pinter et al. 2013, 2015). Neobakeria Schlechter (1924: 149) was characterized as having uniseriate filaments which are distinctly connate above the perigone, and included 7 species placed by Baker in Polyxena Kunth (1843: 294) subgenus Astemma Baker (1897: 419) such as Neobakeria angustifolia (Linnaeus 1782: 193) Schlechter (1924: 150); N. burchellii (Baker 1897: 420) Schlechter (1924: 150); N. comata (Baker 1897: 419) Schlechter (1924: 150); N. haemanthoides (Baker 1888: 1727) Schlechter (1924: 150); N. marginata (Baker 1897: 420) Schlechter (1924: 150); N. namaquensis Schlechter (1924: 150) and N. rugulosa (Baker 1897: 420) Schlechter (1924: 150), N. namaquensis being the type (Müller-Doblies & Müller-Doblies 1997). Two additional species were later described in this genus, as Neobakeria heterandra Isaac (1939: 729) and N. visseriae Barnes (1933: 72). All Neobakeria species are currently placed in Massonia or in Daubenya Lindley (1835: 1813), except Neobakeria visseriae. Schlechter (1924) related his new genus Neobakeria to Polyxena and Massonia, but he differenced Polyxena by the biseriate and almost free filaments above the perigone and Massonia by the uniseriate filaments only shortly connate above perigone (Schlechter 1924). The generic circumscription within tribe Massonieae has strongly changed in the last decades (Müller-Doblies & Müller-Doblies 1997, Manning & van der Merwe 2002), but at present it seems to exist a consensus on placing the Neobakeria species in Massonia or Daubenya depending on their bulb, leaves, inflorescence, and bract morphology (Manning & van der Merwe 2002). Our ongoing taxonomic and phylogenetic studies revealed that Massonia includes species with nearly free filaments above the perigone to distinctly connate to form a filaments tube, not supporting recognition of Schlechter's Neobakeria. Neobakeria visseriae was described from plants collected "on a Klip Koppie about 5 miles from Lambert's Bay" byH. A. Visser in May 1931. The protologue describes the plants as having dark green leaves with longitudinal striation and elongated pustules that bear fascicles of white trichomes; flowers white with a cylindrical perigone tube, not expanded at the apex; filaments ca. 6 mm long and connate to form a tube ca. 1.5 mm long above the perigone; and a pale green ovary with a cylindrical style shorter than the stamens. The holotype is kept at BOL and includes 5?6 plants, 4 of them in flower, and a detailed drawing of the plant, made by P.E. Barnes. Both the pressed plants and the drawing perfectly agree with the protologue, however we can highlight some further additional characters from the illustration, such as the free perigone segments being spreading, but neither strongly reflexed nor with a sigmoid inrolled curve, and the fascicles of unequal trichomes on elongated leaf emergences. Furthermore, although the illustration shows filaments of similar length, the flowers inside the envelope in the holotype specimen show unequal filaments and blue anthers with blue pollen. After several failed trials to find this species in nature around Lambert's Bay, we found one population of Massonia visseriae at the type locality, on a Klip Koppie near Jakkalsrivier ca. 6 km E of Lambert's Bay between Van Putensvlei and Groendam farms. Our phylogenetic analyses (not shown) confirm the inclusion of this species in Massonia, also supported by morphology. Therefore, we propose a new combination in Massonia for Neobakeria visseriae. A complete morphological description is presented below based on the study of living material, and comments on its ecology and distribution are reported.