Haworthia Revisited – 50. Haworthia longiana

50. Haworthia longiana V.Poelln., Feddes Repert.Spec.Nov. 41:203(1937).  Archibald, Fl.Pl.S.Afr. 22:f842(1942).  Bayer :130(1976).  Bayer :70(1982).  Scott :24(1985).  Type: Cape, between Hankey and Humansdorp, Archibald 680.  Not preserved.  Lectotype (B&M): icon (B):  H. longiana var. albinota Smith, JS.Afr.Bot. 14:44(1948).  Type: Cape, Humansdorp Distr., Smith 7070 (NBG).

longiana: in honour of F. R. Long.

Rosette stemless, slowly proliferous, to 300mm tall.  Leaves to 300 X 20mm, long attenuate, erect incurving, surfaces minutely scabrid with small indistinctly raised tubercles, occasionally with small white tubercles.  Inflorescence sparsely branched, lax.  Flowers tepals fused, tube straight, inner lower tepals revolute.

1982 – H. longiana was first collected in 1930 by Mr Francis Archibald, between Hankey and Humansdorp, and later named in honour of Major F.R. Long.  It is a very distinct species and also unusual.  The leaves are hard, rigid and curved.  There is an appreciable gap between the leaf bases and the rooting zone of the stem, and the offsets appear from the rooting zone.  The leaves are amplexicaul and connect around the stem as in H. viscosa with which H. longiana is known to hybridise.  It is a slow growing species apparently restricted to steep rocky conglomerate.  The flowers are typically those of the subgenus Hexangulares but the flaring tips of the perianth lobes are shorter than in most of these species and seldom exceed 4mm long.  Although known only from the Hankey/Patensie area, Mr Gordon King sent plants to Smith, tentatively identified as H. longiana, from the Great Winterberg Mountains 20km north of Uitenhage.  H. longiana forms large clumps as much as 200mm in diameter and the individual leaves may exceed 300mm in length.

1999 – There has been no notable additions to the record and this appears to be one of the least problematic of the species.  The collection by Gordon King mentioned above may be incorrectly cited because a specimen of his of H. herrei fa armstrongii (Smith 7195) is also cited as north-east of Uitenhage.  The probable correct compass direction is north-west.

Distribution: 3324 (Steytlerville): Near Quagga (‑DA), Smith 3177 (NBG); Near Mistkraal (-DA), Smith 7070, 7071 (NBG); Humansdorp (-DD), McCloughlin in PRE 34898; Patensie (-DD), Archibald in PRE 39444.  3325: 19km NW. Uitenhage (-CB), Smith 7313, 7314 (NBG).

Inadequately located: ex hort Hurling & Neil in NBG21336; SE. Hankey, Bayer in KG806/70.

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