Taxa Field Guide

From the Latin ‘sessilis’ / ‘sessilis’ meaning ‘spreading’

For Mathias de L’Obel (Lobel, Lobelius) (1538–1616), Flemish botanist, traveller, plant collector. He studied medicine in Leuven and Montpellier and practised medicine from 1571–1581 in Antwerp and Delft, where he was physician to William, Prince of Orange. In 1584 he left the Netherlands for England to escape the civil war and never returned. He became physician to King James I of England and also the king’s botanist. His major work, written in collaboration with Pierre Pena, was Stirpium Adversaria Nova (1571), which describes some 1 500 species in the vicinity of Montpellier, also of Tyrol, Switzerland and the Netherlands. A second volume, Plantarum Historia Stirpium, was published in 1576 with more than 2 000 illustrations, and a further work, Icones Stirpium, seu, Plantarum Tam Exoticarum in 1591.

Gk. kleros = fate, chance, lot (as in ‘drawing lots’); -etum = the place dominated by a given plant. In early Sparta public land was apportioned to citizens by drawing lots, with the best land given to those who, by chance, drew a winning lot.

Gk. konikos = conical, cone-shaped; referring to the cone-shaped capsule.

Gk. erepo = to cover (with a roof) or erepso = I shall hide; referring to the staminodes covering and hiding the stamens.

Gk. lampros = bright, shining; anthos = flower; referring to the light reflecting off the glossy petals.

La. osculum = small mouth; aria = possessing; from the fanciful likeness of the toothed leaves.

For Ernst Julius Rusch (1867–1957), Namibian farmer, businessman and plant collector. He came to South-West Africa (Namibia) in 1890, where he grew succulent plants and later established a nursery at Lichtenstein, near Windhoek, Namibia. He and his son Ernst Franz Rusch Jnr (1897–1964) made many collecting trips together. He was one of the founders of Windhoek, and was given freedom of the city on his 60th birthday.

Gk. Silenos = a Greek woodland deity, half man, half horse or goat, companion of Dionysius, always portrayed as old, bald and bearded, and usually covered with foam or slaver; referring to the sticky secretion of the stems that entrap small insects, thus foiling predators. ‘Catchfly.’

From the Latin africanus = ‘relating to Africa’

From the Latin reflexus = ‘bending back’

From the Latin canescens = ‘becoming white’

From the Latin speciosus =  'beautiful', 'splendid', 'spectacular' and -issimus  the superlative form = 'extremely', 'most'.

From the Latin ‘orbiculata’ / ‘orbiculata’ meaning ‘made into an orb’

From the Cape Province of South Africa, previously known as the Cape Colony. -ensis is a Latin adjectival suffix meaning “pertaining to or “originating in,” Thus these organisms were first discovered in the Cape. In the early days of exploration this epithet was frequently applied to anywhere in South Africa or even Southern Africa

From the Latin rupestris = ‘associated with caves or rocks’

Gk. droseros = dewy; alluding to the dewy glistening leaf-glands.

From the Latin arista meaning "point, ear of grain." The leaf is invariably pointed.

Gk. khasme = wide open, gaping; anthos = flower; alluding to the shape of the corolla.

From the Latin parvus = ‘small’ and flora = ‘flower’.