Nomenclature

Species name:

Romulea columnae   Sebast. & Mauri

Author(s):

Francesco Antonio Sebastiani
   Italy, 1782-1821

Ernesto Mauri
   Italy, 1791-1836

Common name:

Sand Crocus
Dark veined Romulea

Maltese name:

Żagħfran tar-Ramel

Plant Family:

Iridaceae   (Iris Family)

Name Derivation:

Romulea = A Genus named for Romulus, legendary leader of the Romans and founder of Rome (Latin);

columnae = Column like (Latin).

Synonyms:

Trichonema columnae, Romulea armoricana, R.coronata, R. erythropoda, R. minima, R. modesta, R. parlatorii, R. parviflora, R. assumptionis, R. bulbocodium subsp. columnae, R. basileleonis and several other Romulea names used in the past.

Remarks:

A very variable plant which led to numerous synonyms, subspecies or variety names. In Malta there are 4 recorded subspecies (recentely placed under their own species) including an endemic one.
These are the endemic R. columnae subsp. melitensis (R. melitensis) , R. columnae subsp. rollii (R. rollii), R. columnae subsp. ramiflora (R. ramiflora) and R. columnae subsp. columnae

Plant Description

Life Cycle:

Perennial

Habitat:

Coastal rocky places, soil rich in sand.

Sources in Malta:

Common throughout the coastal garigues and cliff tops of Malta and Gozo. Very common in Mistra/Selmun region.

Plant Height:

5cm high, but trailing leaves grow up to 10cm

Flowering Time:

Feb-Mar

A variable and short monocot plant (about 5cm high) that is found scattered throughout many garigue areas of the Maltese islands. They grow from shallow-buried, oval corms which are covered by a hard brown tunic.

The corm produces 3 to 8 linear leaves which are initially erect and then curve down and continue trailing on the ground. They are long and slender; 5-9 cm long and rarely exceeding 1mm in width. Their length is wavy and usually have a channeled cross section. They do not have a white midrib as leaves of Crocus longiflorus (which forms a rather similar foliage)

The plant forms 1 to 3 flowers each supported by a spathe made up of 2 flap-like bracts also referred to as valves. Their texture - herbaceous (leaf-like) or scarious (scale-like or papery) - play an important role for the identification of the Romulea species, at least those found on the Maltese islands. Romulea columnae have most of the margin (but not all) of the upper valve scarious. If this valve is totally scarious, it would make the plant to be R. rollii.

The solitary terminal flower is supported by a green flower stalk (peduncle) about 10-25 mm long. The actinomorphic corolla is formed by 6 perianth segments (tepals) with pointed tips that are usually white, lilac or sometimes violet in colour and somehow shiny. Many specimen in Malta are of the lilac or white variety with dark violet-blue veins at the centre. Some specimen do not have perfectly identical tepals, where those of the inner whorl are slightly shorter and broader than those of the outer whorl. Flowers are slightly smaller compared to those of Romulea ramiflora.

The female reproductive part consists of a spherical ovary at the base of the flower tube with a central style that splits into 3 curved stigma, more or less the same level of the anthers or just shorter. The male reproductive part consists of 3 stamens with elongated, stout anthers covered by bright yellow pollen. The anthers and stigma are close to each other and located at the mouth of the flower.

The fruit capsule is an oval to cylindrical structure with 3 longitudinal lobes and about 1 cm long. Around March/April, it splits open into 3 parts and so exposes the stored orange-brown seeds. These are more or less spherical in shape and about 2mm in diameter. The seeds survive the long and arid summer and germinate after the first heavy rainfalls in October.

Feature	Romulea ramiflora	Romulea melitensis	Romulea rollii	Romulea columnae
Valves of spathe	Both herbaceous sometimes with a narrow scarious margin	Both herbaceous sometimes with a narrow scarious margin	Both or at least the upper valve is totally scarious	Upper valve not wholly scarious - scarious part restricted to a thick border of this valve
Tepal width	3mm - 5mm	1mm	3mm - 5mm	2mm - 4mm
Tepal apex	rounded, broad	pointed or slightly blunt	pointed	pointed
Flower colour	violet	deep violet	white, lilac or violet	often white or lilac, ocassionally violet
Leaf width	1.0 - 1.5mm	1.0 - 1.5mm	Less than 0.8mm	0.5 - 1.0 mm
Leaf growth	Initially erect and then recurved down to the ground	Initially erect and then recurved down to the ground	Leaves appressed (trailing) to the ground	Initially erect and then recurved down to the ground

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