Common name: Montbretia
Crocosmia crocosmiiflora (Lemoine ex Burb. & Dean) N.E.Br. APNI*
Description: Herb 30–100 cm high, with scaly stolons; corms 20–30 mm diam., 3 or more successive corms at base of shoot.
Leaves 30–80 cm long, 10–20 mm wide, midvein ± prominent; outer leaves short, sheath-like.
Scape terete, partly sheathed by leaves, branches few; spike 4–20-flowered, axis zigzagged; spathe bracts scarious, red-brown, c. 5 mm long, becoming longer in fruit; inner 2-fid, shorter. Perianth red-orange; tube slightly decurved, 12–18 mm long; lobes ± equal with lowermost inner lobe slightly broader, oblong to lanceolate, 18–20 mm long, 5–7 mm wide, spreading, outer deeper coloured on back.
Capsule 7–10 mm diam.; seeds c. 6, ± 3 mm long, compressed-triangular, red-brown, usually shrivelled.
Flowering: January–March
Distribution and occurrence: Mainly grows around old gardens, roadsides and in moist forest; spreading by stolons, apparently not producing viable seed; naturalized in coastal districts south from Macksville, and in the Blue Mtns.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *SC, *NT, *CT, *LHI
Other Australian states: *Vic. *Tas. *W.A. *S.A.
Treated as a horticultural hybrid between C. aurea (Pappe ex Hook.) Planch. and C. pottsii (Baker) N. E. Br. produced in France in 1880.
Text by T. A. James & E. A. Brown Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
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