Dietes iridioides

Dietes iridioides, commonly named African iris, fortnight lily, and morea iris, is a species of plant in the family Iridaceae. It has white flowers marked with yellow and violet, with six free tepals that are not joined into a tube at their bases. These flowers last only one day. The seedpods of the plant often bend the stalks down to the ground where they have a better chance of propagating a new generation of plants.

Dietes iridioides
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Iridaceae
Genus: Dietes
Species:
D. iridioides
Binomial name
Dietes iridioides
Synonyms

Dietes vegeta N.E.Br.
Moraea iridioides L.
Moraea vegeta Mill.

The very similar Dietes grandiflora is a larger plant, which can be distinguished by larger flowers which have dark spots at the base of the outer tepals, and last for three days.

Dietes iridoides is widely distributed in Africa, from Ethiopia to South Africa.[1]

These plants were formerly placed in the genus Moraea, but were reclassified because they are rhizomatous. Some references mention the species Dietes vegeta or D. vegeta variegata, springing from some confusion with Moraea vegata (which grows from a corm, not a rhizome). The name D. vegeta is commonly misapplied to both D. iridioides and D. grandiflora.

References
  1. "Dietes iridoides". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 2015-08-10.
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