'' Herbertia'' is a small

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

and

bulbous plants Bulb or Bulbs may refer to: Common uses * Bulb, a food-storage structure within some plants ** Ornamental bulb, a kind of perennial plant * Light bulb, an electric lamp Maritime * Bulb keel, a type of keel * Bulbous bow, a part that sticks ou ...

in the family

Iridaceae Iridaceae is a family of plants in order Asparagales, taking its name from the irises, meaning rainbow, referring to its many colours. There are 66 accepted genera with a total of c. 2244 species worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016). It include ...

Description

Herbaceous and perennial plants, from

tunicate A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (). It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ca ...

, ovoid

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

s with brown, dry, brittle and papery tunics. The stems are simple or branched. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are few, with the basal ones larger than the others; the blade is pleated, linear-lanceolate.

Taxonomy

''Herbertia'' consists of 8 accepted species. One of them is native to southeastern + south-central

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, while the others are distributed in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> The genus is closely related to ''

Alophia ''Alophia'' is a small genus of perennial, herbaceous and bulbous plants in the family Iridaceae. The genus comprise five known species that occur from the South-central United States as well as in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South Am ...

'', ''

Cypella ''Cypella'' is a genus of herbaceous, perennial and bulbous plants in the family Iridaceae. It is distributed in South America, from Peru and Brazil to Northern Argentina. The genus name is likely derived from the Greek word ''kyphella'', m ...

'', and ''

Tigridia ''Tigridia'' , is a genus of bulbous or cormous flowering plants belonging to the family Iridaceae. With common names including peacock flowers, tiger-flowers or shell flowers, they have large showy flowers; and one species, ''Tigridia pavonia'' ...

''. The name of the genus is dedicated to William Herbert (1778–1847), a prominent British botanist and specialist in bulbous plants. ; Species * '' Herbertia amatorum'' C.H.Wright - Uruguay * '' Herbertia darwinii'' Roitman & J.A.Castillo - Rio Grande do Sul State in Brazil, Corrientes Province in Argentina * '' Herbertia furcata'' (Klatt) Ravenna - Uruguay, southern Brazil, Misiones Province in Argentina * '' Herbertia hauthalii'' (Kuntze) K.Schum. - Paraguay * '' Herbertia lahue'' ( Molina) Goldblatt - southern Brazil, northern Argentina, central Chile, Uruguay, southern United States (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida Panhandle)Biota of North America Program 2013 county distribution map
/ref> * '' Herbertia pulchella'' Sweet - Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Uruguay, southern Brazil, northern Chile, Salta Province in Argentina * '' Herbertia quareimana'' Ravenna - Uruguay, southern Brazil * '' Herbertia tigridioides'' () Goldblatt - Bolivia, northern Argentina * '' Herbertia zebrina'' Deble - Rio Grande do Sul State in Brazil

References

Goldblatt, P. Flora of North America: Herbertia.
* Peter Goldblatt. ''Herbertia'' (Iridaceae) Reinstated as a Valid Generic Name. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 64, No. 2 (1977), pp. 378–379

External links

Imágens from the PacifiBulb Society
Iridaceae Iridaceae genera {{Iridaceae-stub