Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asparagales Link
Family
Iridaceae Juss.
Genus
Freesia Klatt
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Freesia refracta (Jacq.) Klatt, Linnaea 34: 673 (1866)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Gladiolus refractus Jacq., Icon. Pl. Rar. [Jacquin] 2, 4, Pl. 241 (1795)
Vernacular Name(s):
Freesia
 Description

Corm ± 2 × 1.5 cm, ovoid, narrowed above, cream; tunic fibrous, brown, thickly matted. Stems ± 20 cm high, wiry. Leaves slightly < stems, 5–12 mm wide, in a ± stiff fan; cormils often in axils of lowermost leaves. Spike 2–7-flowered, axis at right angles to stem. Flowers rather fleshy, ± 5 cm long, ± 3 cm diam., cream tinged with green and yellow, [cultivated forms of divers colours not wild in N.Z.]; lower tube narrow, dull brownish, upper tube abruptly widened, funnel-shaped, cream; lobes 6, ± similar, obtuse, one much yellower than rest. Style filiform; branches 3, each deeply bifid. Capsule globose, ± 1.5 × 1.5 cm, twice length of spathe-valves. Seeds many, red-brown, shining.

[From:  Healy and Edgar (1980) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 3.]

 Biostatus
Exotic
 Phenology

Flowering: Sep.–Oct.

 Bibliography
Hobbs, J.; Hatch, T. 1994: Bulbs for New Zealand Gardens. Godwit Press, Auckland.
Jacquin, N. von 1786 –1793: Icones Plantarum Rariorum. Vol. 2. Wappler, Vienna.
Klatt, F.W. 1866: Revision Iridearum. Linnaea 34: 537–739.