Wurmbea flavanthera (Yellow-anthered Wurmbea, Colchicaceae), a new species from Western Australia’s Mid West region

Abstract

Wurmbea densiflora (Benth.) T.Macfarlane (Colchicaceae) is an attractive, small geophyte bearing several pink flowers, occurring in the northern Wheatbelt and adjacent rangelands of Western Australia. However, the species concept used in a revision of Wurmbea Thunb. in Australia (Macfarlane 1980, 1987) proves to be a mixture of two species, W. densiflora in the original sense of Bentham (1878) and a later-flowering, undescribed species. This second species was given the phrase name W. sp. Paynes Find (C.J. French 1237), by which it has been known for some time (Western Australian Herbarium 1998–). The new species, having been well-researched in the field and Herbarium, is formally described below. The previous confusion between the two species was partly due to a lack of field knowledge and an inadequate appreciation of the relatively constrained flowering times of Wurmbea species.