Wednesday 9 July 2014
Freesia is a genus of around 16 species of flowering plants in the family Iridaceae, native to the eastern side of southern Africa, from Kenya down to South Africa, most species being found in Cape Province. Species of the former genus Anomatheca are now included in Freesia. The plants commonly known as "freesias", with fragrant funnel-shaped flowers, are cultivated hybrids of a number of Freesia species. Some other species are also grown as ornamental plants. They are herbaceous plants which grow from a corm 1 to 2.5 cm diameter, which sends up a tuft of narrow leaves 10 to 30 cm long, and a sparsely branched stem 10 to 40 cm tall bearing a few leaves and a loose one-sided spike of flowers with six tepals. Many species have fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped flowers, although those formerly placed in the genus Anomatheca, such as F. laxa, have flat flowers. Source
