Ferraria is a genus in the Iridaceae family found in southern tropical Africa to the southern Cape. Of 11 species, 7 are found in the Cape region of South Africa and others found in Namaqualand. The monograph for Ferraria was written by Miriam De Vos, 1979, and can be found listed in References. Ferraria was the subject of the PBS list topic of the week in December 2004. An 
introduction was furnished by John Bryan.
Ferraria crispa is widespread but mostly coastal, found on sandstone or granite rocks. The first two photos from Cameron McMaster show plants growing in habitat near Agulhas in the Overberg in view of the ocean. The last photo shows three week old seedings, grown by Nhu Nguyen. Seeds were sown in mid-February and took about 1.5 months to sprout.
This plant that was grown from seed that was supposed to be F. uncinata but matches F. crispa in its large size and thickened midrib proved a bit of a thug in a raised bed in Northern California and does not tolerate temperartures much below freezing. It has a long bloom season and an interesting fragrance that is vanilla like even though this species is described as ill scented. One of these pictures shows the flowering stalk in the garden (growing through a ground cover of a white form of Oxalis purpurea) before it flops which it sometimes does and the very unusual and sometimes very large corms. Photos by Bob Rutemoeller and Mary Sue Ittner.
A couple of photos by Angelo Porcelli showing colour variants in the fringe.
Ferraria crispa ssp. nortierii flowers earlier than subspecies crispa , is found on the northern border of the range and has yellow flowers with dark brown margins, spots, and blotches. It has been easy to flower from seed in Northern California. Photo by Bob Rutemoeller of the flower and Mary Sue Ittner of the corms which are sometimes layered and may even grow better if not separated.
Ferraria densepunctulata acquired 2 years ago from Jim Duggan. Growing and increasing in a container in Riverside, CA. Photo by Jennifer Hildebrand. This species if found on rocky sites, mostly coastal in the northwestern and southwestern Cape. It has pale greenish grey flowers spotted with maroon or purple dots and with crisped edges and narrow cylindrical lower green leaves.
Ferraria divaricata is a variable species distinguished by its large flowers with wide anther lobes and bell-shaped cup. It has greenish-yellow to yellow flowers often with a purplish blue or greenish median line or blotch on each segment and crisped margins. It grows in sand, shale or rocky places and produces flowers open for several days and changing color with age. This flower photographed by Bob Rutemoeller at the Karoo Desert NBG in South Africa wasn't identified, but could be this species.
Ferraria ferrariola is found growing in deep sand on the western coast of South Africa, is greenish-white, or pale greenish-yellow to greenish-blue with the outer segments finely striped with short dark lines. Other distinguishing characteristics are a stem not covered with leaf sheaths and red or purple spotted basal leaf sheaths. The first photograph was taken by Doug Westfall in Southern California and the second by Susan Hayek for Diana Chapman.
Ferraria sp. blooming near Villiersdorp August 2006, photo by Mary Sue Ittner. My field guide says that only Ferraria crispa grows in this area so perhaps that is what this is although it looks more like Ferraria divaricata.
Ferraria uncinata is found on rock outcrops and dry slopes in the northwest and southwest Cape. The photo below by Bob Rutemoeller is of plants happily growing in one of the sections of the elevated raised beds in the Karoo Desert NBG in South Africa where it has a deep root run. Slides taken of this same plant were less blue and more brown and we suspect the true color was somewhere between the two.
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