Family: Iridaceae
Moraea
Citation:
Miller, Figs. Pl. 159:t. 238 (1758).
Derivation: After Robert More, 1703-1780, English botanist.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Deciduous perennial herbs, dormant in summer; corm globose, with a fibrous tunic; leaves few, basal, linear, more or less channelled, with a sheathing base; stem erect, terete, often with branches subtended by reduced sheathing stem bracts.
Inflorescence of a few pedunculate cymes, with herbaceous to scarious spathes; flowers few between paired closely sheathing spathe bracts, pedicellate, fugacious, actinomorphic; perianth-segments free, unequal, clawed at the base; outer 3 lobes patent to deflexed; inner lobes smaller, erect to patent, often 3-fid or vestigial; filaments free or partly connate; anthers basifixed, oblong-linear; style branches 3, flattened, petaloid-winged, each arched over a stamen, with a 2-fid terminal crest exceeding the flap-shaped stigma.
Capsule clavate to globose, long-pedicellate, exserted from the spathes; seeds numerous, small, angular, dark-brown.
Distribution:
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(P. Goldblatt (1976) Ann. Miss. Bot. Gard. 63:657-786.) 95 species native to southern Africa and Madagascar; many are cultivated as ornamentals and about 3 are naturalised in Australia.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Leaves 3 or 4; stem pubescent |
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M. vegeta 4. |
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1. Leaves 1 or 2; stem glabrous |
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2. Perianth-segments similar, entire |
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M. fugax 3. |
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2. Inner 3 perianth-segments 3-fid, much smaller than the outer 3 |
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3. Flowers white with a dark-blue centre |
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M. aristata 1. |
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3. Flower yellow, marked with brown in the centre |
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M. bellendenii 2. |
Author:
Not yet available
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