Chasmanthe
Large perennial herb, leaves and flowers annual; corm depressed-globose, with outer layers of netted fibres. Leaves basal, ensiform flat, glabrous, soft. Inflorescence with scape erect, terete, robust, glabrous, with flowers distichous or arranged on one side of the axis, many-flowered; primary bracts 1–1.5 cm long. Flowers spreading, zygomorphic, bilabiate, red to orange, sometimes yellowy perianth tube narrow basally, abruptly widened into a long curved cylindric part, lobes shorter than tube, unequal, the adaxial lobe longest and hood-shaped; stamens asymmetrically arranged to one side of the flower, anthers sub-basifixed, versatile; style thread-like, 3-branched, each branch slender and recurved. Capsule depressed-globose, exceeding the primary bracts; seeds few, globose.
3 species, in southern Africa; all cultivated as garden ornamentals, and have naturalised in Victoria.
Conn, B.J. (1994). Iridaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 686–716. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
