Iphigenia Kunth, Enum. Pl. 4: 212 (1843).
Taxon Description
Rootstocks a tunicate corm covered with a tunic. Stems simple, erect, slender, leafy. Leaves few, alternate, sessile, cauline, scattered, narrow, linear. Bract leaf-like. Flowers several in a terminal corymb, erect, pedicels long. Tepals 6, usually caducous, segments equal, petaloid, spreading or recurved, clawed. Stamens 6, inserted at base of tepals; filaments very short, slightly flat; anthers oblong, versatile, extrose. Ovary ovoid to oblong, 3-loculed, ovules many per locule; style short, apically 3-lobed, lobes recurved, adaxially stigmatic. Capsule loculicidal, 3-valved. Seeds many, brown, subglobose.
Taxon Statistics
Worldwide 11 species in Asia, Africa, & Australasia. One species in Nepal.
1. Iphigenia indica (L.) A. Gray ex Kunth, Enum. Pl. 4: 213 (1843).
Melanthium indicum L. in Mant. Pl.: 226 (1771); Anguillaria indica (L.) R.Br.
Herbs 8–40 cm. Corms white, narrowed into a short neck, tunicate with pale brown scaly sheaths, sub-globose. Stems herbaceous, erect, rigid, straight or flexuous. Leaves linear, 5–12 cm X 3–6 mm, longer below, base sheathing and clasping, apex acuminate, midvein conspicuous. Inflorescences 3–5 flowered in a terminal raceme, bracts linear or subulate, leafy, 1–6 cm X 2–3 mm, pedicels 0.5–4 cm. Tepals dark purple to yellowish-green, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 5–7 X 0.7–1 mm, spreading and reflexed, Stamens 1.5–3 mm, equal to or shorter than the oblong ovary, filaments papillose, 1–2.5 mm; anthers 0.5 mm. Ovary 2.5–3 X 1.5–1.7 mm, ovules many per locule, style ca. 0.5 mm; stigma ca. 0.5 mm, 3-lobed, recurved. Capsule obovoid to oblong, obtuse at both ends, deep purple to black, 7–10 X 5–7 mm. Seeds oval, 8 X 5 mm.
Distribution: Nepal, Assam-Burma, S Asia, E Asia and SE Asia; Africa.
Altitudinal Range: 1100–2600 m.
Ecology: Growing between rocks in damp sandy soils among mosses on open mixed woodland and shrubland with Pinus roxburghii, Abies spectabilis.
Flowering: June–July. Fruiting: July–August.