Ixia is a genus in the Iridaceae family with 50 species mainly from the western, southwestern, and southern winter-rainfall areas of the northern, western and eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa. Information and photographs illustrating Ixia A-C can be found on this page.
Ixia curta grows on sandy flats and slopes in the southwest Cape. This species flowers in spring. Flowers are orange with a brown center often outlined by a reddish center. It is similar to Ixia monadelpha but has bowl-shaped flowers and wider segments. Photo from Mary Sue Ittner of a plant grown from seed.
Ixia dubia is a species with orange or yellow flowers, often with dark centers, and is found on sandstone and granite flats and slopes in the Cape from Piketberg to Caldon. Photos by Mary Sue Ittner. The third picture taken by Roy Herold in the hills above Muizenburg, south of Cape Town, in October 2002 of this plant is probably this species.
The orange flowered version (syn. Ixia frederickii ) was until recently considered to be a separate species found from only two localities in the southwest Cape and blooming in October. The first picture was taken by Kristina Van Wert in the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens collection and the others by Mary Sue Ittner. The last shows the corms.
Ixia flexuosa is found on clay flats and slopes from the Cape Peninsula to Riversdale and therefore is found in areas with winter rainfall and year round rainfall. It blooms winter to spring and has small pink, mauve, or white flowers, sometimes with deeper pink veins. The first photo by Bob Rutemoeller is of one blooming April 2003 in Northern California. The last pictures were taken by Cameron McMaster in Napier, Fairfield, and Stormsvei in the Overberg.
Ixia hybrids. The first picture is of an unknown Ixia hybrid growing in the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens bulb collection. Photo by Kristina Van Wert. The other photos are from Mary Sue Ittner. Hybrids planted in the ground have increased dramatically in her Northern California garden as they produce small cormlets around the corm. They make quite a show, but can be really floppy, especially if it rains when they are in bloom.
Ixia latifolia grows on flats and mountains in mostly clay soil in Namaqualand and the western and southwestern Cape to the Karoo. It has sword-shaped broad leaves and three to seven pink to purple or mauve flowers, rarely white. The stamens are erect and the filaments well exserted. It is similar to Ixia rapunculoides and Ixia marginifolia. Photo from Rod Saunders from Silverhill Seeds.
Ixia latifolia var. latifolia has wide leaves and a straight terminal spike. Photos were taken by Mary Sue Ittner and illustrate the flowers, leaves, and corms. Blooming for the first time from seed February 2006.
Ixia latifolia var. ramulosa is found in Namaqualand in sandy soil. It has purple or mauve flowers. Photo taken in Namaqua National Park September 2006 by Mary Sue Ittner.
Ixia longituba grows on hills, flats and shale slopes from Caledon to Swellendam and blooms late September to November. It has cream colored to pink flowers sometimes flushed pink on the outside. Photos taken at Caledon and Napier in the Overberg by Cameron McMaster.
Ixia lutea var. lutea flowering in Northern California, grown from seed of Ixia conferta var. ochroleuca now renamed. This is a species of the southwestern Cape. Photos by Bob Rutemoeller and Mary Sue Ittner
Ixia M-O – Ixia P-Z – Ixia index