Zingela N.R.Crouch, Mart.-Azorín, M.B.Crespo, M.Pinter & M.Á.Alonso

Martínez-Azorín, Mario, Crespo, Manuel B., Alonso-Vargas, María Ángeles, Pinter, Michael, Crouch, Neil R., Dold, Anthony P., Mucina, Ladislav, Pfosser, Martin & Wetschnig, Wolfgang, 2023, A generic monograph of the Hyacinthaceae subfamily Urgineoideae, Phytotaxa 610 (1), pp. 1-143 : 123-124

30. Zingela N.R.Crouch, Mart.-Azorín, M.B.Crespo, M.Pinter & M.Á.Alonso

in Phytotaxa 371(1): 36 (2018) ( Figs 74– 75 ).

Typus generis:— Z. pooleyorum N.R.Crouch, Mart. -Azorín, M.B.Crespo, M.Pinter & M.Á.Alonso (holotype).

Description:—Bulbous geophyte. Bulb hypogeal, 5‒8 cm in diam., composed of 10‒25 thickened, fleshy, white, elongated loose scales, with copious threads when torn, ca. 6 × 1 cm. Roots thickened and branched. Leaves 1‒4 per bulb, mostly hysteranthous, glaucous green, long narrowly oblong with pointed apex, 10‒35 cm long, 5‒10 mm wide, with 2 grooves adaxially, strongly keeled abaxially in a V-shape, commonly twisting, convolute at base with distinct purple maculations abaxially. Inflorescence a long and lax raceme, 15‒30 cm long, with 25‒55 flowers; peduncle 30‒60 cm long, greenish-brown, mottled covered white bloom; pedicels 10‒12 mm long, patent and arching down, purple-brown, with whitish bloom, elongating up to 2 cm long and arching up in fruit. Bracts lanceolate, 2‒4 mm long, acute, lowermost with long basal spur up to 6‒8 mm long that is flattened and appressed to stem; bracteoles present and distinct, white. Flowers stellate, subpatent to nodding, opening in afternoon and closing at about sunset. Tepals 6, biseriate, lanceolate, 9‒11 mm long, almost free from base, reflexed, white with broad purplish-brown median stripe. Stamens 6, spreading; filaments free, filiform, ca. 6 mm long, slightly flattened and triangular at base; anthers narrowly oblong, pale yellow, ca. 4 mm long before dehiscence, distinctly circinnate after pollen release, dehiscing longitudinally along whole length. Ovary ovoid to subconical, 3.8‒4.0 mm long, yellowish, trigonous. Style filiform, white, 5.0‒ 5.7 mm long, erect to slightly sinuous, curved outwards in distal part. Stigma small and indistinctly trigonous. Capsule shortly oblong, 14‒17 mm long, pale brown, valves completely dehiscing from base, tepals cohering and inrolled above ovary after anthesis, circumcissile from base and persisting as a cap at the top of the developing capsules. Seeds subelliptic, 10‒11 mm long, flattened, with prominent central embryo and broad wings, testa black, with strongly sinuous and slightly raised anticlinal cell walls.

Number of species and distribution:— Zingela includes a single species known so far only from two localities within the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, and disjunctly found to occur in Harare ( Zimbabwe) (Kativu & Drumond 1994, Crouch et al. 2018, 2020) and the farm Vergenoeg, ca. 200 km northeast of Windhoek in Namibia (A. Eichhoff s.n. ABH!) ( Fig. 71 ). The genus is restricted to the Uzambara-Zululand Region and the Southern Section of the Zambezian Subregion (sensu Takhtajan 1986 and Martínez-Azorín et al. 2023a). For a complete description of Zingela see Crouch et al. (2018).

Karyology:—Apparently not studied yet (cf. Goldblatt et al. 2012).

History, diagnostic characters, and taxonomic relationships:—The only known member of this monotypic genus, Zingela pooleyorum , was described on the basis of plants with loose, bulbs scales; hysteranthous, keeled leaves, multiflowered racemes, present bracteoles, diurnal flowers and spreading stamens with circinnate anthers, which were previously collected in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and usually identified as Drimia indica ( Indurgia indica in the sense of the present study). The phylogenetic results of Martínez-Azorín et al. (2023a) place four samples of Zingela in a strongly supported clade, which is included in a polytomy with Thuranthos and Ledurgia . As reported by Crouch et al. (2018, 2020) and Martínez-Azorín et al. (2018b), Zingela differs from Thuranthos in the diurnal flowers and filiform spreading filaments with coiled anthers, among other characters, whereas Ledurgia presents compact bulb scales, very short peduncle, few flowered racemes with campanulate flowers, and shortly connate tepals ( Speta 2001). Therefore we accept Zingela along with Thuranthos and Ledurgia based on morphological and phylogenetic evidence.

Accepted species:—

Zingela pooleyorum N.R.Crouch, Mart. - Azorín, M.B. Crespo, M.Pinter & M.Á. Alonso in Phytotaxa 371(1): 36 (2018) ( Figs 6.6 , 74.1 , 75 ). Type:— SOUTH AFRICA. KwaZulu-Natal. Bela Vista (2632): On Pongola floodplain edge, Ndumo [Ndumu] Hill , Ndumo [Ndumu] Game Reserve , (–CD), 15 October 1969, E.S. Pooley 661 (NU25353! holo.).

= Urginea indica (Roxb.) Kunth var. multiflora Oberm. , nom. nud. (Art. 38 Ex. 1 of the ICN).

= Urginea zebrina Oberm. var. multiflora Oberm. , nom. nud. in sched.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Seed morphology in Urgineoideae. 1. Urgineopsis salteri Compton; 2. Vera-duthiea capillifolia A.Patzelt et al.; 3. Veraduthiea sp. (Urginea petrophila A.Chev., nom. nud.); 4. Vera-duthiea sebiri (Berhaut) Mart.-Azorín et al.; 5. Vera-duthiea sp. (Urginea segetalis A.Chev., nom. nud.); 6. Zingela pooleyorum N.R.Crouch et al.; 7. Zulusia delagoensis (Baker) Mart.-Azorín et al.; 8. Zulusia edwardsii (N.R.Crouch & Mart.-Azorín) Mart.-Azorín et al.; 9. Zulusia lydenburgensis (R.A.Dyer) Mart.-Azorín et al.; 10. Urginea cf. aurantica H.Lindb.; 11. Urginea revoluta A.V.Duthie.All to the same scale in mm.

FIGURE 71. Approximate distribution ranges of accepted genera in Urgineoideae.

FIGURE 74. Species of Zingela N.R.Crouch et al. 1. Zingela pooleyorum N.R.Crouch et al. illustrated by Elsa Pooley based on Pooley 661 (NU); 2. Zingela sp. by Olive Anderson in Kativu & Drummond (1994: 114) based on Grosvenor 835 (SRGH).

FIGURE 75. Zingela pooleyorum N.R.Crouch et al.