Moraea iridioides L.   =Dietes vegeta   Iridaceae (Iris Family)   South Africa   Fortnight Lily      African Iris

                                        February Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Perennial from short, stout creeping rhizome; lvs. sword shaped, rigid, in fan-shaped distichous rosettes, to .9 m. long, 1.5-2 cm. wide, parallel veined, glabrous, flat; fls. 3-4 to a spathe, blooming one at a time, white with yellow bearded midsection on hafts of 3 outer segms., 3-4 cm. long, 2 cm. wide, inner segms. white, 3-4 cm. long, 1 cm. wide, the 3 lanceolate lilac style-crests deeply bifid and marked bluish, perianth about 4 cm. long; caps. 2.5-4 cm. long, ellipsoidal.

Habitat:  Escape from cultivation.  Common in yards and highway medians in the area.  Blooms spring, summer and fall.

Name:  Morae-a, J. Moraeus, Swedish physician, father-in-law of Linnaeus.  (Bailey 277).  Iridioides, iris like.  (Bailey 16).  Greek, irid, name of a kind of lily and oides, a  contraction of Greek o+oides meaning likeness of form, a thing that is like.  (Jaeger 130, 172).

General:  Rare in the study area with only one small colony of three or four plants known; these in Santa Ana Heights below the horse and bike path.  A storm drain terminates near these plants and parts of the original plant may have been carried from Mesa Dr. above with waste water.  (my comments).      Much like Iris, being the representative of that genus in the southern hemisphere.  Differs in species mostly cormous, perianth not possessed of a tube above the ovary, filaments more or less connate basally into a tube; outer segms. cuneate, with reflexing limb, inner segms. either similar and smaller or in some kinds reduced to small tricuspidate parts.  (Bailey 277).      Each flower last only a day, but is quickly replaced by another.  Bloom bursts seems to come at two week intervals, hence the name Fortnight Lily.  (Sunset Editors, New Western Garden Book 1984, 273).      All iris have an irritant substance in the leaves, but especially in the rootstocks, which produces poisonous effects when eaten in large amounts.  The rootstocks sometimes cause a skin rash to develop on contact.  (James 39).

Text Ref:  Bailey 277; Sunset Editors, New Western Garden Book 1984, 273.

Photo Ref:  Jan-Mar 97 #8A,9A,10A.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by John Johnson.

First Found:  February 1997.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 503.

Plant specimen donated to UC Riverside in 2004.

Last edit 8/6/05.

                                        February Photo