Some notes on Massonia species

[MikeT]

I don't grow any Massonias, but a couple of photos of M. depressa from Seekop, about 9km N of Lekkersing last September

[BrianMc]

Some other new or resurrected names that might be unfamiliar are Massonia longipes, dentata, mimetica and amoena; I have a photo of the latter that I will add to my web page some time.

Hi Terry,
I have recently been seeing a lot of "Massonia longipes" on various sites and judging by the many photos I think there is a fair amount of confusion between that and M. pustulata. I grew my M.pustulata from the MSG seed offering, which I assume was donated by you. In your opinion is this M.pustulata or the resurrected M.longipes?

[BrianMc]

there is also the more-recently discovered summer-growing M. roggeveldensis.

Summer growing? I thought M. wittebergensis was the only summer grower of the genus. My M. roggeveldensis was dormant in summer, and started to grow in autumn, flowered in November along with other Massonias.

Did you acquire them from the southern hemisphere perhaps?

[Aiko]

there is also the more-recently discovered summer-growing M. roggeveldensis.

Summer growing? I thought M. wittebergensis was the only summer grower of the genus. My M. roggeveldensis was dormant in summer, and started to grow in autumn, flowered in November along with other Massonias.

Did you acquire them from the southern hemisphere perhaps?

No, I got them from a grower in the Netherlands (http://www.massonia.com). He grows them from seed.

I have recently been seeing a lot of "Massonia longipes" on various sites and judging by the many photos I think there is a fair amount of confusion between that and M. pustulata. I grew my M.pustulata from the MSG seed offering, which I assume was donated by you. In your opinion is this M.pustulata or the resurrected M.longipes?

Many plants that bear the name Massonia pustulata are in fact Massonia longipes. The (main) difference between the two species lies in (1) the number of pustulates on the leaves and (2) the colour of the stamens

Massonia pustulata has leaves very densely covered with tiny pustules, while those of Massonia longipes are less in numbers, but are bigger.

Massonia pustulata has white / greenish stamens (or should I say filament?), while those of Massonia longipes are white / reddish.

[Terry S.]

First, apologies for confusing the Roggeveld and the Witteberg mountains, my brain wasn't connected to my fingers. M. wittebergensis is of course the other summer-grower in addition to M. saniensis.

The M. pustulata seed in the MSG distribution a few years back didn't come from me and I did not grow any of it. M. longipes was resurrected and separated from M. pustulata in a paper in Stapfia 97 (2012) 210 - 221. The authors of that paper used DNA sequence data to show that the two species separated into distinct clades. They also provided some gross morphological data to separate the two species as follows:

"M. pustulata is easily distinguishable from M. longipes by the characteristic bluish-green color and the larger diameter (7-9 mm) of the entrance of the filament- and perigon-filament-tube (5mm and of the pink color in M. longipes). The two species can also easily be distinguished by their leaf surfaces: M. pustulata shows 115-170 pustules per square-centimeter whereas M. longipes has only 27-36 (or even less at some basal parts of the leaves).The diameter of the pustules is 0,6 mm in M. pustulata and 1,1 mm in M. longipes"

Looking at the photos in the paper, the bluish-green and pink colours seem to refer to the mouth of the flower tube and possibly represent a simple means of distinguishing them. I haven't yet had a go at trying to use this data to distinguish the species or to do any pustule counts!





#•

[BrianMc]

The M. pustulata seed in the MSG distribution a few years back didn't come from me and I did not grow any of it.

Thanks for your reply Terry and apologies for my assumption on seed source.

Judging by the many photos observed on the internet and the helpful comments from yourself and Aiko I am inclined to believe that the MSG seed is in fact M.longipes.

MSG seed distribution - Massonia longipes?

During my recent internet "research" on Massonia I have noticed that the plants labelled as M.pustulata that also display the above mentioned 'correct' pustule count and size/ leaf structure seem to be more florally akin to M. depressa than my plant pictured here(M.longipes?)

[Aiko]

I also am convinced this is Massonia longipes.

[Aiko]

Massonia roggeveldensis
In the summer of 2015 I acquired a few plants of Massonia sp. Roggeveld. This is a species that was likely to be lifted to a species status and would be named in due course.
It turns out, this has happened.

This species is now named: Massonia roggeveldensis.

Anyone interested in some seeds of this plant should keep an eye out on my free / swap seed list. I expect to have seeds available somewhere during spring. Late 2015 I had cross-pollinated my plants, and if it looks like the seed capsules are developing.

I have now been able to harvest some fresh seeds of Massonia roggeveldensis, and have offered seeds (to swap) in the thread: viewtopic.php?f=56&t=163627&p=248282#p248282

[Aiko]

I just heard of a new Massonia species: Massonia thunbergiana. Not much to find on it at the moment, unfortunately...

[Aiko]

I just heard of a new Massonia species: Massonia thunbergiana. Not much to find on it at the moment, unfortunately...

There is now a picture on the page: http://massonia.com/gallery?page=1