Tuesday, April 15, 2008

African Iris

In response to a question about the flowers shown in my April 8 post, Stars of the Earth, they are African Iris: Dietes bicolor.

There is another African Iris: Moraea grandiflora (though sometimes seen listed as Dietes grandiflora), which we grow here on the beach and they are also very beautiful.

Like other iris, d. bicolor is rhizomatous. The grandiflora are corms. Neither seem to have a fragrance that I can detect.

Here are a couple of links on these beautiful plants if you are interested in growing them:

African Iris (Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas A&M University, Horticulture Update, June 2005)

African Iris (Wikipedia)

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