Dierama is an African genus in the Iridaceae family. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa. There are 44 species. Most are found in the eastern mountanious regions of Southern Africa. Dierama is an evergreen, mainly summer growing geophyte. It has long, narrow tough fibrous foliage and pendulous bell-shaped flowers in shades of white, yellow, pink, magenta, mauve or maroon.
Dierama grandiflorum This species is confined to a small area of the Bosberg near Somerset East. Flowering and photographed in early spring by Rob Hamilton.
Dierama luteoalbidum This species is a lovely pale lemon colour in bud opening to white shaded yellow. Flowered and photographed in early summer by Rob Hamilton .
Dierama pauciflorum The paucity of flowers on this species is made up by its intense colour. Flowering and photographed by Rob Hamilton in early summer.
Dierama pendulum This is a white form of this species photographed and flowered by Rob Hamilton in early summer.
Dierama pulcherrimum This is the first blooming of a seedling. It took 6 years! The seed came from RHS Gardens Wisley and I can only assume this is the correct ID for my seedling, as I have found no other photos or descriptions. A lovely colouring and the inflorescence is aprox. 100cm tall. Growing in well-drained soil above my pond, on the rockery. Photos by Jamie Vande.
Dierama sp. This Dierama is probably Dierama pendulum which is the only winter-growing species. It grows well in Northen California where it blooms most years in June. It has reseeded in my garden and tolerates a lot of rain in winter and little in summer which would be opposite of what it would get in the wild since it is an Eastern Cape species. Photos by Bob Rutemoeller of a close-up of a flower and a clump in bloom.
I decided to dig out a clump that was no longer blooming I suspected because it was too shady, but also it could have been too crowded. Below is a photograph of the corms. It looks like there are at least ten years of corms and in a couple of instances, they split and two or three more corms were growing on top of the original one. Photo by Mary Sue Ittner.
