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Literature review
Within Ixieae there are the subtribes of Ixiinae, Tritoniinae, Gladiolinae,
Radinosiphon, Hesperanthinae, Melasphaerula, Babianinae, Romuleinae, Freesiinae
and Anapalinae. Romulea belongs to the subtribe of Romuleinae (GOLDBLATT,
1990). The other members of this subtribe are Crocus and Syringodea
(GOLDBLATT, 1990).
Other genera in Ixieae includes Anomatheca, Babiana, Chasmanthe, Crocosmia,
Crocus, Devia, Dierama, Duthieatrum, Freesia, Geissorhiza, Gladiolus, Hesperantha,
Ixia, Melasphaetula, Radinosiphon, Shizostylis, Syringodea, Tritonia, Tritonopsis and
Zygotritonia (GOLDBLATT, 1990).
REEVES et al. (2001) showed the close association of the two genera Romulea and
Crocus. It also confirms the classification of GOLDBLATT (1990) with molecular
techniques. This classification was obtained by REEVES et al. (2001) by combining
sequencing work in the Iridaceae done by other studies with their own sequencing
data and grouping these in a combined parsimonious tree with bootstrap
percentages and Fitch weights.
Maratti did a small taxonomic study on Romulea species in 1772 (DE VOS, 1972). In
this work he described Romulea after a species growing in the neighbourhood of
Rome. He proposed that this species was distinct from Crocus, Colchicum,
Sisyrinchium, Bulbocodium and Ixia (DE VOS, 1972).
2.4 CONSERVATION STATUS
As it is a moral duty of every scientist to be concerned about the conservation of
species of which they are using reproductive material harvested from the wild, a
section on the conservation status of this genus is therefore included.
RAIMONDO et al. (2009) list Romulea as having fewer endangered species than
previous studies (HILTON-TAYLOR, 1996). Although this is explained, it does not
mention the status of one attractive species listed by HILTON-TAYLOR (1996) as
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