Pauridia glabella (Pauridia glabella)

Description

Pauridia is a genus of plants within the family of Hypoxidaceae . The approximately 34 species occur in Southern Africa and Australia.The Pauridia species grow as perennial, herbaceous plants , which are usually relatively low and rarely reach heights of growth of 50 centimeters. They form subterranean, thickened shoot axes , as �berdauerungsorgane, which are newly formed annually in each growing season and usually remain the shoot axis pieces of the last or several growing periods on top of each other. Only for Spiloxene alba and Spiloxene aquaticait is different, their shoot axes grow in a largely horizontal direction. Since the sheaths of the subterranean shoot axles are very different, they serve to group the species; they can be thin and membranous or fibrous, these fibers can be branched and form a fine mesh around the shoot axis or they can be hard and straight and resemble teeth on the shoot axis. All Pauridia species have contractile roots for some time to develop, allowing them to regulate the height in the soil for optimal growth. A special feature of Pauridia ovata and Pauridia gracilipes , where the roots wind around the subterranean shoot axes, remain over a year and thus form a "wound rootstock" This non-geotropic growth has been reported rarely in geophytes and seems to occur only in South African Pauridia . These are geophytes where the leaves dry up during the dry season and drive out fresh leaves in the rainy season, which often occur during flowering. Pauridia species are green in the South African winter. In the late South African autumn new leaves begin to drive out. Several up to twelve leaves are arranged only in the basal more or less three-line. There are leaf sheaths formed. The simple leaf blades are lanceolate to cylindrical or linear. Unlike their closest relatives of the genera Hypoxis and Rhodohypoxis , leaf surfaces are bare; only in a few species has the smooth leaf margin inconspicuous, short-branched hair trichomes. There is parallel nerve. A special feature is used in the in periodic Still waters thriving Spiloxene aquatica before their hollow blades are substantially filled with air spaces