Ornithogalum paradoxum Jacq .. Collect. Suppl. 81 (1796); Willd., Spec. 2: 115 (1799). Type: Figure in Jacquin Collect. Suppl. t.1 (1796) (lectotype).
Thaumaza paradoxa (Jacq.) Salisb., Gen. Pl. 15 (1866).
E.vallisgratiae Schltr. ex V. Poelln., Feddes Repert. 53: 124 (1944). Type: South Africa, Cape Province, Genadendal. Schlechter 10333 (BM, K, G, GRA, MO, Z).
E.nlindricum Marloth. S. Afr. Gard. 19: 327 (1929). Type: South Africa, Cape Province. near Karoopoort, Marloth 9145 (PRE).
E.arenicolum V. Poelln .. Feddes Repert. 52(1): 122 (1943). Schultes & Schultes, Syst. Veg. 7(1): 305 (1829): Kunth, Enum Pl. 4: 654 (1843). Type: South Africa, Cape Province, Worseley (Ceres Road), Schlechter 8994 (NH, PRE).
Plants with hysteranthous leaves, solitary, foliage up to 100 mm high.
Tuber simple, oblong to irregularly-shaped. up to 50 mm long, 25 mm wide, skin greyish-brown, interior pink to maroon-red in the older parts: growing point basal to lateral with a groove.
Old leaf sheaths up to 90 mm long, 10 mm wide, greyish-brown, membranous.
Leaf solitary erect; contemporary leaf sheath exserted up to 30 mm, 3 mm diameter, white and glabrous at ground level becoming reddish and covered with short curly hairs above; lamina ovate-cordate 7 mm long, 6 mm wide, reddish and almost glabrous abaxially, adaxial surface hairy, with a single long profusely branched enation forming a rounded or narrow to broadly cylindrical head up to 110 mm long and 30 mm wide; hairs few to very numerous and curly giving a woolly appearance.
Peduncular hract barely exserted.
Peduncle up to 25 mm long, 1.5 mm diameter, pale green with fine red streaking, covered with short curly hairs, occasionally glabrous.
Raceme densely conical to cylindrical up to 90 mm long, 35 mm wide, with up to 40 flowers.
Bracts up to 3 mm long, membranous, white with a green and red streaked midnerve, covered with curly hairs.
Pedicels up to 6 mm long sometimes sparsely hairy.
Flowers sweetly scented, spreading, up to 17 mm diameter.
Tepals sub-equal, white with a light green midnerve covered with few red streaks; the outer ligulate, 12 mm long, 2 mm wide, the inner narrowly spathulate, 10 mm long, 2.5 mm wide.
Filaments equal, 9 mm long, 1 mm wide at the base very gradually tapering to the anther, white.
Ovary globose, 2 mm diameter, bright green.
Style cylindrical, 6 mm long, white.
Flowering time: April to May.
Leafing period: May to October.
Distribution and habitat: E.paradoxum is distributed widely in the winter rainfail area of the Cape Province, from the Richtersveld in the north-west to near Grahamstown in the south-east. It is found on sandy flats amongst Fynbos vegetation or on clayey soils amongst karroid shrubs (Figure 62).
Diagnostic features: The compact inflorescence of comparatively large, scented white flowers is so distinctive that E.paradoxum cannot be confused with any other species of Eriospermum. The much-branched enation on the leaf is also very distinctive (Figure 63).
According to Duthie (1940) the type material was probably collected by Boos & Scholl and grown at Schonbrun. It was figured and described by Jacquin in 1796 under the name Ornithogalum paradoxum.
Reference: Pauline L. Perry, A REVISION OF THE GENUS ERIOSPERMUM (Eriospermaceae)
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