Citation: Klatt, Linnaea 34:672 (1866).

Derivation: After F. H. T. Freese, (died in 1876), a fellow student of C. F. Ecklon who proposed the name.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Small glabrous deciduous perennial herbs dormant in summer; corm annual, ovoid, with a tunic of netted fibres; leaves basal and near-basal, equitant, distichous, flat, lanceolate to sword-shaped; scape terete, wiry, erect but bent horizontally just below the spike.

Spike short, dense, one-sided; flowers sessile, zygomorphic, erect, solitary in each spathe, sweetly-scented; bracts short, paired, truncate, subequal, herbaceous, the inner one 2-fid; perianth tube curved, narrowly cylindric below, abruptly widened into a cylindric upper portion; lobes shorter than the tube, somewhat unequal; stamens inserted on the tube, free, unilateral; anthers oblong, basifixed, included; style branches 3, each 2-fid, fillform, recurved; stigmas 6.

Capsule obovoid, papillose; seeds few, globose, smooth. (P. Goldblatt (1982) Jl S. Afr. Bot. 48:39-91.)

Distribution:  11 species native to South Africa; several species and their hybrids are cultivated as ornamentals.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available