Synonymy: F. refracta sensu J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 370 (1978), non Klatt.

Common name: Freesia, common freesia.

Description:
Herb 10-40 cm high, producing bulbils in the lower leaf axils; corms c. 1.5 cm diam.; leaves 4-8, erect, acute, 8-26 cm long, to 1 cm wide, rather soft-textured, pale-green with a prominent mid-vein.

Scape unbranched, partly sheathed by the leaves and slightly papillose near the base; flowers 3-7, white to cream shaded purple on the outside of the perianth tube and marked with golden-yellow on the lower 3 lobes and often also on the tube; spatres 5-8 mm long; tube 2-3.5 cm long; contracted in the basal 6-8 mm; lobes elliptic, obtuse, 1-1.5 cm long, subequal but the dorsal lobes somewhat wider and hooded; anthers c. 6 mm long; style subequal to perianth.

Capsules 1-1.5 cm long, rugose, green; seeds 3-4 mm diam., brown.

Published illustration: Macoboy (1969) What flower is that?, fig. 405.

Distribution:  A garden escape on roadsides and waste land in settled areas, and locally established in native vegetation, e.g. in mallee at the former settlement of Inneston.   W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Aug. — Oct.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: A few naturalised Freesia specimens appear indistinguishable from either F. alba (G. L. Meyer) Gumbleton or F. leichtlinii Klatt, but most lie on a hybrid continuum between these two species and are here treated as a single entity. The common garden freesias of the last century were produced from these species (Goldblatt, 1982); more modern hybrids, often involving the pink-flowered variant of F. corymbosa (Burman f.) N.E. Br., are common in cultivation but have not become naturalised.

Author: Not yet available