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  1. Family: Iridaceae Juss.

    1. Freesia Eckl. ex Klatt

        2. This genus is accepted, and its native range is Kenya to S. Africa.

    [FTEA]

    Iridaceae, Peter Goldblatt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1996

    Habit
    Perennials with corms with fibrous tunics
    Leaves
    Leaves several, the lower 1-2 entirely sheathing (cataphylls); foliage leaves plane, firm or soft-textured
    Inflorescences
    Inflorescence a spike, usually flexed at the base; bracts herbaceous to coriaceous, the inner shorter than the outer, often brown at apex
    Flowers
    Flowers zygomorphic, shades of pink to red, or whitish usually with contrasting darker markings on the lower 3 tepals; perianth-tube well developed, either slender and cylindric throughout or narrowly campanulate; tepals subequal or the upper larger and erect and the 3 lower inclined to horizontal
    Stamens
    Stamens unilateral and arcuate, filaments usually mostly included; anthers parallel and contiguous
    Pistil
    Ovary globose-oblong; style exserted, the branches filiform, each deeply divided and recurved
    Fruits
    Capsules globose, coriaceous, usually papillate to rugose
    Seeds
    Seeds few-many per locule, oblong to globose, glossy, smooth or ruminate.
    [FZ]

    Iridaceae, P. Goldblatt. Flora Zambesiaca 12:4. 1993

    Habit
    Perennial herbs with corms, aerial parts dying back annually; corms with fibrous tunics.
    Leaves
    Leaves several, the lower 1–2, entirely sheathing (cataphylls); foliage leaves plane, firm or soft-textured.
    Inflorescences
    Inflorescence a spike, usually flexed at the base (flowers solitary on inflorescence branches in 2 South African spp.), floral bracts herbaceous to coriaceous, the inner shorter than the outer, often brown at the apex.
    Flowers
    Flowers zygomorphic, in shades of pink to red or whitish usually with contrasting darker markings on the lower 3 tepals; perianth tube well developed, either slender and cylindric throughout or narrowly campanulate; tepals subequal or the upper larger and erect and the 3 lower inclined to the horizontal.
    Stamens
    Stamens unilateral and arcuate, filaments usually mostly included; anthers parallel and contiguous.
    Pistil
    Ovary globose-oblong, style exserted; style branches filiform, each deeply divided and recurved.
    Fruits
    Capsules globose, coriaceous, usually papillate to rugose.
    Seeds
    Seeds few to many per locule, angular to oblong-globose.

    Images

    Distribution

    Native to:

    Cape Provinces, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zaïre, Zimbabwe

    Introduced into:

    Argentina Northeast, Baleares, Bermuda, California, Canary Is., Corse, East Aegean Is., Florida, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Kriti, Madeira, Mauritius, New South Wales, Norfolk Is., Portugal, Réunion, Sicilia, Spain, St.Helena

    Freesia Eckl. ex Klatt appears in other Kew resources:

    First published in Linnaea 34: 672 (1866)

    Accepted by

    • Govaerts, R. (2001). World Checklist of Seed Plants Database in ACCESS E-F: 1-50919.

    Literature

    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • Goldblatt & J.C. Manning in Syst. Bot. 20: 161-178 (1995)
    • in Linnaea 34: 672 (1866)

    Sources

    Flora Zambesiaca
    Flora Zambesiaca
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Kew Backbone Distributions
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2020. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

    Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2020. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0