Ceropegia capensis Bruyns, 2018

Bruyns, Peter V., 2018, New species of Ceropegia (Apocynaceae) from Africa, Phytotaxa 375 (3), pp. 214-220 : 214-216

Ceropegia capensis Bruyns , spec. nov. ( Figs. 1 , 4A )

This species differs from C. namaquensis Bruyns (2003: 427) by the less succulent shoots, the much larger leaves and the shorter corolla with shorter lobes that remain fused at their tips.

Type: –– SOUTH AFRICA, Western Cape, 80 km north of Cape Town, 50 m, 28 January 2016, P. V.Bruyns 13117 (holotype BOL!).

Slender creeping succulent perennial arising from cluster of swollen fusiform roots. Shoots usually several from rootstock, slightly fleshy, trailing on sand to 0.5 m, 2–3 mm thick, not twining, glabrous, green with scattered purple spots; leaves 15–30 × 7–15 mm, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, flat, slightly fleshy, glabrous, green suffused with red above and green below, with petiole 6–10 mm long. Inflorescence glabrous, 1-flowered, without peduncle, with single small bract at base; pedicel 9–13 × ± 1 mm, green suffused with purple, ascending; sepals ± 4 mm long, 1 mm broad at base. Corolla tubular with lobes remaining fused at tips, ± 35 mm long; outside purplish red-veined on white towards mouth of tube with white patch at base, glabrous; inside maroon in tube, on lobes pinkish white irregularly mottled and veined with purple on lower half changing abruptly to dark purple-brown patch then becoming pale purple-brown above, with purple-brown cilia ± 1.5 mm long along margins of lobes and otherwise glabrous; tube 20–22 mm long, with basal inflation ± 6 × 7 mm and slightly longitudinally wrinkled inside, abruptly narrowing to 3 mm diam. then widening gradually to ± 12 mm at mouth; lobes ± 10 mm long, tightly folded longitudinally except right at base, 3 mm broad in lower half narrowing to 1 mm in upper half. Corona ± 4 × 4 mm, without basal stipe; outer lobes ± 2 mm tall, erect, notched in middle to one third into two ± obtusely deltate lobules, translucent with dark purple-brown margins and yellow near base, with many straight white hairs <1 mm long along margins; inner lobes ± 3.5 mm long, ± 0.7 mm broad in middle narrowing near tip, adpressed to backs of anthers then rising together in column over centre of gynostegium, yellow, obtuse, glabrous. Follicles and seed unknown.

Habitat and Distribution: –– Ceropegia capensis is known from a single locality some 80 km north of Cape Town. Here it occurs in gently undulating countryside about 2 km from the sea in soft, fine, white sand in a typical sandveld community among relatively dense cover of shrubs of Restionaceae , Rhus Linneaus (1753: 265) , Chrysanthemoides Fabricius (1759: 79) and Maytenus Molina (1782: 349) , with many succulents including Ceropegia incarnata (Linneaus (1782: 171) Bruyns (2017: 419), Cotyledon orbiculata Linneaus (1753: 429) , Crassula tomentosa Thunberg (1778: 329) , Euphorbia burmannii E. Meyer ex Boissier (1862: 75) , E. caput-medusae Linneaus (1753: 452) , E. mauritanica Linneaus (1753: 452) , E. tenax Burchell (1822: 219) , Tylecodon grandiflorus ( Burman (1768: 13)) Tölken (1978: 379) and several succulent Aizoaceae .

Discussion: ––The fleshy stems, fusiform swollen roots, corona detached from the base of the tube (rather than wholly fused to it, as in Ceropegia carnosa ) and its habitat within the winter-rainfall area of the Greater Cape Flora ( Manning & Goldblatt 2012) all suggest that this new species belongs to sect. Ciliatilobae Bruyns (2017: 432) and is related to Ceropegia namaquensis , which is known from a single locality in the Richtersveld, South Africa, some 600 km to the north. Ceropegia capensis differs from C. namaquensis by the trailing, thinner shoots which readily root and form further plantlets (erect and slightly twining in C. namaquensis ). The leaves are also much larger, while they are rudimentary and caducous in C. namaquensis . Florally the two differ in the shorter flowers of C. capensis (50–60 mm long in C. namaquensis ) with much shorter lobes (± 23 mm long in C. namaquensis ).

This remarkable discovery was made by Andries Cilliers and it brings to three the species of Ceropegia other than stapeliads now known from the winter-rainfall region of the west coast of South Africa, along with C. occidentalis Dyer (1978: 445) of sect. Ceropegiella Huber (1957: 32) and C. namaquensis of sect. Ciliatilobae. No other collections are known of this new species, despite the proximity of the type locality to Cape Town, where plant-collecting has been going on for nearly 400 years.

Conservation Status: ––Only known from a single gathering therefore the conservation status is not assessed.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Ceropegia capensis. A, portion of plant (scale 10 mm). B, corolla (scale 5 mm). C, base of dissected corolla tube (scale 3 mm). D, side view of gynostegium (scale 1 mm). E, pollinarium (scale 0.25 mm). Drawn from P.V.Bruyns 13117 (BOL).

FIGURE 4. A, Ceropegia capensis, Bruyns 13117 (BOL).B, Ceropegia emdenpienaarii, Bruyns 7016 (BOL).C, Ceropegia tundavalensis, Bruyns 13303 (BOL). Photographs by P.V.Bruyns.