Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Patersonia fragilis

Common name

Swamp Iris, Short Purple-flag

Family

Iridaceae

Where found

Woodland, wet heath, and moist places. Coast and ranges.

Notes

Perennial herb to about 0.8 m high. Leaf tips often sharp. Flower stalks hairless, grooved, 4-25 cm long. Leaves basal, 20–80 cm long, 1–6 mm wide, biconvex to cylindrical, grooved, hairless, slightly glaucous. Flowers pale violet to blue-violet or purple, tubular, the tube 25–35 mm long, with 3 'petals' 12–23 mm long. Bracts (spathes) at the base of the flowers green to brown with dark brown dry membranous margins, forming a structure 5–9 mm wide. Flowers opening one at a time from within the flower base, rarely 2 flowers open at the same time. Flowering: August–December

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Patersonia~fragilis (accessed 30 January, 2021)