Ixia longituba
N.E.Br.Corm 1–1.8 cm diam. Stem simple or with 1–3 stiff, curved branches. Leaves 5–6, erect, linear, 15–50 cm long, 8–14 mm wide, with prominent midvein. Inflorescence 2–6-flowered, flowers openly spaced. Primary bracts obtuse, 6–9 mm long, dry and membranous, ± colourless or purplish at apex. Flowers pale to deep pink to mauve. Perianth tube narrowly cylindric, expanded in the upper third, 2–3 cm long; lobes spreading, 1–1.3 cm long, 5–8 mm wide, with apex obtuse. Staminal filaments free, c. 5 mm long; anthers c. 4 mm long. Ovary c. 3 mm long; style branches spreading at about the level of the anthers, 1–2 mm long. Flowers Dec.
GipP. Native to South Africa. Not otherwise recorded as naturalised in Australia. Collected in 1992 from a bushland reserve in Blackburn, an eastern suburb of Melbourne.
Specimens collected at Blackburn differed slightly from typical South African plants in having fewer flowers per inflorescence and in the perianth lobes being slightly shorter (usually more than half as long as and sometimes longer than the tube in typical material). They may be of hybrid origin.
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.
