Freesia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia:How to read a taxobox
How to read a taxobox
Freesia
Cultivated freesias
Cultivated freesias
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Asparagales
Family: Iridaceae
Genus: Freesia
Klatt
Species

See text.

Freesia (Ecklon ex Klatt) is a genus of 14-16 species of flowering plants in the family Iridaceae, native to Africa. Of the 14 species, 12 are native to Cape Province, South Africa, the remaining two to tropical Africa, one species extending north of the equator to Sudan.

The genus was named in honor of Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese (1795-1876), German physician.

They are herbaceous plants which grow from a corm 1-2.5 cm diameter, which sends up a tuft of narrow leaves 10-30 cm long, and a sparsely branched stem 10-40 cm tall bearing a few leaves and a loose one-sided spike of fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped flowers.

Species
  • Freesia alba
  • Freesia andersoniae
  • Freesia caryophyllacea
  • Freesia corymbosa
  • Freesia fergusoniae
  • Freesia fucata
  • Freesia grandiflora
  • Freesia iwuzhere
  • Freesia laxa (syn. Anomatheca laxa, Lapeirousia laxa)
  • Freesia leichtlinii
  • Freesia occidentalis
  • Freesia refracta
  • Freesia sparrmannii
  • Freesia speciosa
  • Freesia verrucosa
  • Freesia viridis (syn. Anomatheca viridis)

Freesias are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Large Yellow Underwing.

Freesias are very popular garden plants, grown for their often strongly scented flowers. The most commonly cultivated species is F. refracta, which was crossed with F. leichtlinii in the 19th century. Numerous cultivars have been bred from these species and the pink- and yellow-flowered forms of F. corymbosa. Modern tetraploid cultivars have flowers ranging from white to yellow, pink, red and blue-mauve. They are widely cultivated and readily increased from seed. Due to their specific and pleasing scent, they are often used in hand creams, shampoos, candles, etc.

Goldblatt, P. (1982) Systematics of Freesia Klatt (Iridaceae) J. South African Bot. 48:39-93.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../f/r/e/Freesia.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.