Eastward Chapter 6
Kristeen Cheek
'I had hoped we would learn something of Narchuil that might aid us in finding it before the Angmarim, but that hope, like so many others, has been dashed. We have been delayed by Mordrambor and must now follow Amarthiel's forces eastward, where I had hoped to stay before them.
'No matter. There are many tall hills between here and the wilderness of the Trollshaws, and if we must follow, we will do so knowing what to expect. You should leave Evendim heading east and pass through the Fields of Fornost. A short distance north-east of Trestlebridge stands the great hill of Amon Raith. Stand at its peak and look eastward. If you see the Angmarim ahead of you, continue to Amon Sl, which is called Weathertop by many, in the Lone-lands, and do the same: look eastward from its summit.
You have followed a company of Angmarim eastward, and they have reached the Last Bridge before you. You should travel to the Last Bridge and speak with the scout posted there for news of the Angmarim.
Echad Candelleth is in Tl Bruinen, south of the Ford of Bruinen. Alphlanc told you to locate the path south along the banks of the Bruinen, and to follow the path until you come across one of Candelleth's scouts, who can further guide you to the camp.
Alphlanc has told you that the Angmarim company passed into Tl Bruinen and wants you to travel to her sister Candelleth's camp in order to warn her of the danger posed by the presence of the Angmarim.
Put very bluntly and without any apology to a group of people who definitely deserve better, my life experience is that taxonomy is largely a farce despite the fact that it works surprisingly and exceedingly well. I have already written around the subject a number of times and do not want to repeat what is not necessarily true other than the contribution these thoughts have made to my personal psyche.
In this contribution I am discuss, illustrate and then propose that there are just two species, H. retusa and H. pygmaea in a complex where presently more than nine species and varietal names are being used. I do this in consideration of all the populations of Haworthia known to me in the winter rainfall biome. Thus I recognize the need to rationalize species like H. mirabilis (which will then absorb H. maraisii, H. magnifica and H., heidelbergensis, and H. retusa (which will absorb H. turgida. There is a major problem in that the populations indicate three species in the west, viz. H. mirabilis, H. retusa and H. mutica but these appear to fuse or morph to two in the east. My past treatment of species and varieties like maraisii, magnifica, acuminata, dekenahii, argenteo-maculosa will bear witness to the nature of the (my) problem.
Jan Vlok confirms my opinion that the only real factor in the biogeography apart from the complex geology at Great Brak, is the Gouritz Valley. It is mainly the geology which seems to impact on H. parksiana and H. kingiana. The river does not affect either H. minima, or H. turgida. There is some doubt about the interaction and variation of H. chloracantha and H. floribunda across the valley. The populations (splendens, fusca, esterhuizenii, vincentii and argenteo-maculosa are in my opinion a series of consecutive populations which can be regarded as a continuum unbroken by the river valley. There seem to be very few species or any other biogeographical evidence to suggest that Haworthia has been impacted on.
Those considered here refer only to the species of the subgenus Haworthia and exclude H. variegata, H. floribunda and H. chloracantha of that subgenus. One must assume that by this stage, most of the relevant populations are known although I cannot claim to have personally explored the full potential of the area. Altogether I know of 29 populations which need to be considered in terms of their probable taxonomic affinities. They are listed according to my interpretation of the present available nomenclature as follows:
I do this evaluation in the light of a synopsis of Haworthia which I submitted to the SA Biodiversity Institute for a flora of the Eastern Cape. That synopsis generates the question of how the species of the Western Cape should then be summarized. Quite fortuitously a parallel, although minor, problem seems to be resolved. In about 1976 I suggested that the flora of the Cape would never be understood until it was recognised that the true biome nature of the vegetation and the present-time Cape Flora was that of a Winter Rainfall biome stretching from Southern Namibia to the Eastern Cape. This now appears to be reflected in current botanical thinking where the Succulent Karoo is seen to be intimately linked to the Fynbos. The impact of this is that one really needs to re-think how species elements of the Southern Cape, are linked to those of the Little Karoo. Fortunately this does not really touch the elements I will discuss in this article although there are some peculiarities. For example, there is H. parksiana, H. kingiana, and Duvalia immaculata which are endemic to the Mossel bay area, while H. minima leapfrogs the Langeberg to occur in the Little Karoo.
What is more important is the present classification (of mine) which links most of the elements I am dealing with, to H. magnifica that is in the Riversdale/Heidelberg area. The other principle elements outside the study area bearing on the discussion are H. retusa and H. mutica.
Outside of vegetative physical appearances, there are only two really tangible pointers to relationships. One is population structure and co-existence (do the populations share close habitat or not), and the other is flowering time. Physical appearance is fairly helpful in that there are quite notable differences. There are plants which are generally light coloured and which are either adapted to steep rocky habitats as clumping cliff dwellers or are generally more solitary and adapted to level habitats. These are spring flowering. Then there is a set of populations in which the plants are very seldom in cliff habitats, are dark coloured and flower in late summer.
The first spring flowering group comprises (for the purpose of this article) H. retusa and H. turgida. There is no doubt in my mind that these two are essentially the same species as they never co-exist. The actual situation is very complicated and the recognition of H. mutica as the western representative of H. retusa and which can be said to co-exist with H. turgida, is indicative of that.
The second summer flowering group is even more complex and it is possible to suggest that H. mirabilis as presently constituted, should be enlarged to include H. maraisii, H. heidelbergensis and H. magnifica just west of Riversdale. In the context of biomes I would be rational to suggest that such treatment would need to consider also the incorporation of H. emelyae in view of its possible interaction with H. maraisii.
In respect of the study area it is thus evident that we need to look primarily at flowering time as all the populations are essentially in the light-coloured ambit rather than in the smaller dark green one of H. mirabilis. I do not imply hereby that this is inarguable, but it is evident that we need to understand that in the west we have a triumvirate of possible species with two distinct flowering times, whereas in the study area there seem to be two main elements which are both essentially spring flowering.
Both dekenahii ( Draaihoek) and fusca flower more or less together with retusa and emelyae (except major) in September-October. Both are in fruit in early November. In cultivation they also flower in March-April but I have never been able to visit them at that time in habitat to see whether they do the same. I would think so.
Argenteo-maculosa (Cooper Siding and Humor) plants are different in having heavier flecked and chunkier leaves and to me it is a toss of a coin whether they are seen as a variant of dekenahii or pygmaea.
There are two important considerations. One is that Gerhard does not profess to be a botanist or to be too concerned with taxonomy. The other is that he is assessing the situation in terms of his specific life experience in relation to all the variables I mention earlier. He does not see to have considered the many turgida populations and their variation, the Vleesbaai population of acuminata, and another important single population of pygmaea at Herbertsdale, and neither does he relate these to a greatly compounded problem when all the relevant known Western Cape populations are added.
Turgida occurs on steep rocky river banks (shale cliffs) and in two places can be said to coexist with pygmaea or dekenahii (Dumbie Dykes and Draaihoek). It is not outside the realm of possibility that the differences in vegetative appearances are responses to different habitat and substrate. It should also be noted that the turgida var pallidifolia was described from Draaihoek too. I saw such clones at the site when I visited the area in ca 1972, but on a recent visit no such light coloured clones were apparent. The population further down the Valsch River is also highly patterned as are those at Draaihoek. It should be noted that there used to exist another population to the north of Draaihoek which I would have equated with H. turgida var longibracteata from the Heideberg area or lower Goukou River at Riversdale. The population at Wydersriver is not known to me apart from photographs of G G Smith and also seems to fall outside of the ambit of turgida var suberecta as I classified all these eastern populatons of turgida. The one population which I recently examined was on the Wyders River northeast of Ouvloere (Albertinia district) where the plants definitely suggest affinity with vincentii. Examining my photographs, which are reproduced with this article, I thought there was a remarkable similarity between clones of fusca and argenteo-maculosa at HumorumorHumor.
Of course one can adopt a different species definition and even suggest that simple superficial resemblance of a minimal sample is adequate for an opinion forming process. It is certainly difficult to even attempt to examine how these populations became isolated or even to ponder exactly how isolated they really are in relation to pollination mechanisms and seed dispersal.
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